A few last pictures from China and one from our arrival in San Francisco.
Regular shuttle flights run between Qingdao and Beijing about every two hours, but we decided to pursue one more adventure and took the train instead. We’re glad we did. It did make for a much longer travel day, but it was worth it. We said goodbye to everyone the night before and woke up around 4:30a to prepare for the trip to the train station. Unfortunately, Corban woke up with diarrhea and wasn’t able to go with us to the train station. J.D. did go along and it was great to spend a few final hours with him.
The trip to the train station took us through some older sections of Qingdao that we hadn’t seen before. Qingdao was originally a German outpost and there are still large sections of the city dominated by German architecture. We’ll do more exploring when we return in the spring and it is cooler outside. We only had two small challenges to our travels home and they both came at the beginning of the trip. We needed to call Flight to find out exactly where to meet her and discovered that my phone was out of credit. J.D. ran off to top up the phone and while he was gone I went searching for a restroom. We had gotten up early, but my body hadn’t gotten through the morning routine and I was a little anxious. I headed for a local hotel next to the train station, but discovered a public restroom on the way. It wasn’t as clean, but it met the need.
We headed into the train station at about 6:30a. There was security at the entrance, but we were all able to go through. It was great that J.D. was able to go with us all the way to the waiting area. There was enough English on the notice boards that Shirley and I could have gotten there on our own, but it was very reassuring to have help. Our train left from the South waiting room and we went down several floors and entered this huge room with beautiful gold chandeliers. It wasn’t crowded and there were very clear directions on an electronic notice board letting us know which door we were to go through. Shortly before departure time we got in line and went back up an escalator to get to the platform.
You can find pictures of the Inner City Express train at http://www.qingdaochinaguide.com/news/living-essentials/qingdao-beijing-train.html. I had made a small mistake when purchasing the tickets and had failed to get a window seat for Shirley. The seating was four across and we sat down in two seats together with Shirley next to the window anyway. We were in someone else’s seat, but she and the train staff graciously allowed us to stay. There was a place for our luggage when we got on board and Shirley found a spotless restroom with an American style toilet. The train accelerated slowly out of the station and rocked a little as we moved through the city, but quickly settled down to a very smooth and quiet ride. The maximum speed we saw was 303 kmh. That is 188 miles per hour. I think that is the fastest I’ve ever traveled on the ground.
We didn’t eat any corn while we were in China, but we sure saw a lot of it between Qindao and Beijing. It was the only crop we could really recognize and the corn fields went as far as we could see on both sides of the train and were only interrupted by an occasional city. The view was less varied than we expected and I was mostly struck by the immense amount of food that was obviously being grown. At one point the corn fields were broken by mile after mile of greenhouses. These were simple structures that appeared to be covered with plastic. We couldn’t see the end of them.
We have lived most of our life in the suburbs. Santa Rosa is called a city, but doesn’t really qualify after seeing the cities of China. As the train traveled along one minute we’d be viewing corn fields and then as the train slowed for a station we’d see the high rises and construction cranes. The concept of a suburb may exist in China, but we certainly didn’t see it.
It was a great trip and I would highly recommend it. The extra few dollars we spent for first class tickets were well worth it. We were very comfortable and the quiet gave us some time to debrief a little as we prepared for the long flight home. The signs at the Beijing South train station were very clear and we had no difficulty finding a taxi. Shirley had her printed card all ready and the driver clearly acknowledged that he knew where we wanted to go.
Check-in at the airport went smoothly and we ate our snacks before heading out to the gate. While we’ve been in China we’ve often felt like celebrities with people staring at us, especially when we were with the boys. On this day we were not the celebrities. Apparently a very famous Chinese singer was going to be flying out of Beijing. The entrance to the international departure area was lined with people, mostly young girls holding fans with pictures of the singer on them. It was a mad house and took us a little while to figure out how to make our way through. We got through and the flight home was uneventful. It was wonderful to have another American sitting next to us. He was a young software engineer on his way home from Shanghai. We talked a lot during the flight and this is something we usually don’t do. I don’t know how much this experience has changed us, but I have no doubt we have changed. It is great to be home, but we look forward to returning next spring.
