A trip to Beijing

At the train station
The young man I visited with
Nadia and Linda
The Beijing railway station. Very large, very many people. It was a cloudy, cool, rainy day - not smoggy.

I'm always intrigued by how crowded these places we go to are. I try to show it is pictures but it is difficult.

Two workers taking a smoke break.

Our first trip to Beijing by train. We went to shop not to sightsee so parts of it were kind of boring for me. But we did get to ride the subway around Beijing and we did not have to take a taxi anywhere - always an accomplishment, And we did get to see some of Beijing, but not the parts you've seen on the news I'm sure. And, oddly enough, I have some pictures.

It takes almost as long to get to the train station where we catch the train to Beijing as it does to get from Tianjin to Beijing. The train to Beijing is called a bullet train and it travels at just about 100 MPH. I sat next to a very nice young man who really wanted to talk English to me who told me that within the next 3 months the really high speed train will be finished and the travel time to Beijing will be cut in half. That means the train will be traveling 200 MPH. The 100 MPH train was a very smooth ride, there are attendants like stewardesses who bring the snack cart through the cars. Nothing is free, however. The seats were very low to the ground compared to what Linda and I are used to. But the seats do recline and once we got used to it the ride was very comfortable.

The young man I sat next to was a student who traveled to Beijing every weekend to take classes. He is an accounting major. I'm not sure why he is traveling to Beijing but it must be important because travel must be incredibly expensive for a student. It cost 42 RMB each to go to Beijing from Tianjin - about $6. It cost us almost 40RMB to get from our apartment to the train station in a taxi. Had we known what buses to take it probably would have cost 6 RMB by bus - That's 2 bus fairs for each of us. Buses cost 1.5 RMB (about $0.20) but there are no transfers. Every time you get on a bus it's 1.5 RMB. We are trying to learn our way to places by bus. We just had the brilliant idea to ask the lady who is in charge of the foreign teachers if there is a bus schedule for Tianjin in English (I doubt that there is). That would be great. The young man - his name is Pang Hong Qiang ( q sound like ch) was very eager to talk about America. We talked about the Houston Rockets, Lebron James, the New York Giants and American football. I tried to interest him in more serious subjects but I'm not sure he had the vocabulary for them. I got to unity and harmonious society but he changed the subject. We talked slowly almost all the way to Beijing.

Once in Bejing we went to a place where all the clothes are pretty cheap. We really only looked on floors that had womens clothes. It was so crowded and confusing that I was afraid to leave Linda and Nadia, so I just hung out. Toward the end of our shopping I got restless, so I began taking pictures of individual people working in the shops. I think I made one girl very uncomfortable. But I showed her the picture I took. I'm not sure she was happy about it. I also took one of the back of her head. This place was supposed to be the "Outlet Mall" for cheap name-brand clothes. It was not at all what I had imagined. The stores were small (about 10x10) and it was difficult to find anything plus if you did they would not let you try it on. I found some slacks for $7 but was not going to take the chance on length. There was one store with Indian style tops but neither of us bought one. It was good to get out of there because of the crowd and the confusion with how to get from floor to floor.

Then we went to a little alley of shops that was difficult to find. This was much better because I could wander around. Unfortunately, the light was fading. But I had a good time here. This alley was also primarily women's clothes. We talked to a European lady at the other place and she told us about a good shoe store with sizes that would fit me. We took a bus to the area and with a map that she made, found the place. There were other small shops in the area also. So, the shoe store was pretty good, a large selection but what was out was all they had. I bought a pair of leather sandals that fit well but not in the exact color I wanted at a price less than in the US. We walked quite a distance which was fun although the weather was cool and damp. We ate in a Chinese type restuarant that was good, we ran out of time to explore for a really good Korean or Russian restuarant (for Nadia). We did have a good cup of coffee at a coffee shop, though! The most fun was the time spent with Nadia getting to know her. I told Linda that if we go to Beijing again I'd like to do some sight seeing, too (or instead of shopping). I'm ready to get out and around to see what there is to see in this and other cities.