9 November 2011
Shanghai to Beijing
Well, I made it to Beijing without incident, despite dire predictions the high speed rail was a deathtrap designed by 5 year olds and regularly exploded for no reason.
I really enjoyed the trip, I spent most of it standing up looking out a window between carriages.
The people on the train ate the entire way, I couldnt believe how much they ate.
Also, the train had a Jackie Chan movie showing, with the sound turned up (no headphones), most people found this hilarious.
However some people had already seen it, so as the seats had powerpoints, pulled out their laptops, cranked the volume to distorted levels out of their laptop speakers, and small crowds would gather to watch dubbed episodes of friends and two and a half men.
Getting from the Beijing South station to my hotel was no drama, despite having to change subway trains twice. The subway trains themselves are a fair bit smaller than Shanghai.
My hotel is a fairly regular sort of a hotel, the internet seems to work, and for some strange reason I get a fax machine, but not a single English tv channel.
Despite warnings that Beijing air quality is terrible, the further we got from Shanghai the clearer it got, until eventually it was bright blue sky, and right now its getting dark and not only can I see the moon but even a couple of stars. I didnt think that was possible in China.
Its also not as cold as I thought, but with the clear sky maybe it will cool down fast.
Me waiting for the train. A good thing I am not wearing a short skirt like yesterday.
My train.
The dining car, they had an assortment of microwave meals to heat up, and snack foods and noodles in a cup.
It was flat pretty much the entire way, with mainly farmlands.
Every couple of minutes you go past a sizeable town.
And every few seconds you go past a farmers village, seriously at least once every minute, you see a lot go by at 300kmph.
Then you see a lot of these brand new cities under construction. I presume they are being constructed to take advantage of the new rail line.
Starting to see blue sky.
Clear blue sky!
But then every now and then, pollution, due to massive power plants such as this.
For the last 200km or so, it was pretty much city, but they dont call it Beijing. Look how unpolluted the sky looks.
Beijing South station. I highly recommend the Shanghai to Beijing high speed rail.