Last Days in China

Wednesday, June 23, 2010--Qingdao and Train   I stayed in the room until 11:30.  I updated the blog, read papers, checked the address of my hotel in Beijing (which ended up being in a completely different place from where Google maps showed it to be), etc.   It was cool and breezy outside.  This whole China trip has surprised me with the weather being cooler than expected.  I spent 5 hours in area malls and at the Olympic Sailing Center.  Much of that time I was reading from my novel.   I was a big worred about whether the bus would be crowded when I had to go to the train station.  Fortunately, I had no problem getting a single seat that allowed me to hold my bag right beside me.  Since I knew the trip from yesterday, I had no problem getting up and prepared for my exit when we were near the train station.   I continued to read from my book while waiting for the train.  Then a young man spoke to me.  He was waiting for the same train.  He is a student who has applied to study in the U.S. and was on his way to Beijing to take the TOEFL, the examination in English that foreign students must pass before being admitted to American universities.  He is a petroleum engineer and wants to get a master's degree from Stanford.  Like most Chinese students, he seemed serious and optomistic.   I've been dreading tonight, because all the beds in the sleeper cars were already sold out when I bought my ticket 5 days ago.  I had to buy a ticket for a seat.  Now that I am on the train, I am even more worried.  The seats are fixed upright and do not recline.  It is going to be a long miserable night in an uncomfortable seat and without enough leg room for me and the people sitting in the seats facing me.   Thursday, June 24, 2010--Beijing   We arrived at 5:45.  I was so glad to get here and get off the train.  I slept only a little off and on.  I would awaken and look at my watch to see that only 15 or 30 minutes had passed.  It was made even worse by the fact that they sold tickets to passengers without seat reservations.  The aisles had people sitting, reclining, and standing in them.  A man was leaning against the edge of my aisle seat.  It was an experience!  And NOT a good one.   I didn't want to go directly to my hotel at that time.  Therefore, I just sat in one of the waiting rooms at the train station reading my book until 7:00.  Then I caught the metro which required me to change trains.  Of course, it was rush hour time, but I followed my usual procedure of going to the last door of the last car when I have luggage.  Sure enough, even though the passengers were packed like sardines in most of the train, I was able to get in that last spot without a problem.   I was at the hotel by 8:00.  Although I couldn't get a "big bed" room which I had reserved, they already had a twin bed room available, so I took it.  I went into the room and slept until noon.    I remained tired all day, although I forced myself to go out in the afternoon.  I just went to the nearby pedestrian shopping street.  I bought a pork sandwich from a stall.  I watched people.  I went to a supermarket and bought some dried plums, some noodles, some beer, and some cookies.  Then I returned to the room.  I was in bed by 21:30.   Friday, June 25, 2010--Beijing   I slept for 11 hours last night!  It was so nice to have a bed.  Yet I was still slow getting up and out today.   I walked to Jingshan Park.  It's behind the Forbidden City and was part of that complex--a private park for the emperors.  It has a hill in the center of it with a temple on top and which is the best viewing point overlooking both the Forbidden City and Beijing.  Unfortunately, smog interferes with that view.  I took a couple of photos, but I am sure that little can be seen in them.  Mainly, I went to the park to finish reading my book.   Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence was not as good as some of his other books.  I get the impression he wrote it mainly because he had been thinking of socialism, communism, and dictatorships and had ideas in his head that he wanted to put down.  The book is set in Australia just after WWI.  I bought it because it was on a list of books that were recommended because of their descriptions of places in time--sort of a list of books for traveling back in time.  I gave the book two stars out of 4.   After finishing the book, I was warm and thirsty.  I stopped at a supermarket and bought some yogurt and a Coke Zero.  I'm going to miss the red date yogurt here.  It is so delicious.  And a 450g (1 pound) bottle costs only about 60 cents U.S. I returned to the hotel and rested for part of the afternoon.   At 6:00, I went to the Howard Johnson Paragon Hotel which is across the street from Beijing Train Station (only 3 metro stops from where I am staying).  My friend Ib from Denmark had arrived earlier in the afternoon with the faculty of the school where he teaches and should have been there following a brief tour in town.  He wasn't there yet, but as I wrote him a note, he walked up behind me and surprised me.  We spent an hour visiting.   He explained that they are here for one week and will not visit anywhere else in China.  Then two days after he gets back to Denmark he will leave for Brazil (where he lived for many years before returning to Denmark last year) for 5 weeks.  We talked about what I have been doing and what the rest of my travel plans are for this year.  It was a nice visit with just enough time to feel good about seeing each other under such unusual circumstances--being in the same country on the other side of the world at the same time.   I'll spend tonight packing and reorganizing my luggage.  Tomorrow I will fly to Hong Kong.  I need to make sure my carry-on luggage will have nothing in it that will be a problem.