Making a nice profit as the accidental scalpers

It's 7:30 am on Jan 27 and I'm sitting in the back of an Audi A8 flying past spluttering trucks on a highway from Beijing to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Up ahead is the open road and the driver, a distant relative of my fiancee, steps on the gas - 120 km/h, 140 km/h, 160 km/h.

We were making our getaway after our experience as huangniu (yellow bulls), the Chinese name given to ticket scalpers. I always say to anyone that will listen that I can't stand people who buy train tickets and sell them for a profit, yet I'd just been an accomplice to one. My tale of hypocrisy began two days earlier.

My fiancee and I awoke at 5 am on Jan 25 to the sound of my cell phone alarm. We looked at each other in a sleepy stupor until we realized we need to buy tickets. Within minutes we were running down the street to the nearest train ticket sales booth. It was so cold my face was completely frozen by the time we reached it.