Day 8: To Shanghai

Day 8: Journey to Shanghai

After saying goodbye to all my friends, I jumped into a cab and traveled to the Beijing Railway Station. The cab ride - which took about 25 minutes and cost an equal amount of Yuan - was a bit overwhelming. Everything I see and hear for much of the remainder of the trip will be, for lack of a better word, entirely foreign. The cab driver spoke no English (let's face it, many in America barely speak it, too), and, when I got to the station, I thought it'd be easier to navigate. There were huge hordes of people, and I traveled around looking for G3, as it was the only thing I had on my confirmation email. Turns out that was the name of the train I was to board, and, thanks to a bit of English knowledge from the Info Desk. I hopped in Ticket Line 41 because, as Jun confirmed in a text, that was the manager's line and he knew English. I wouldn't have known that any other way. 

I waited with the masses for about 45 minutes to get my ticket. I was about 3 hours early, so that was good! After a quick bathroom usage and a stop to a different Info Desk, I figured out that I had to board one of these 28 ticket check locations. It's pretty amazing and overwhelming in the same breath. Amid the sea of probably 5,000 faces, I didn't see one non-Chinese face except for a German dude who was running late and asked to cut in front of me at the ticket booth. Almost as soon as I wrote this, I saw a young man and 3 girls of different ancestry that were traveling together but not Han. They didn't make eye contact, so I didn't engage with them.

When I boarded that train car, I was a bit confused. I looked at my ticket "02A" and walked past the second row, which was filled with a family. I walked to the back, deposited my now very heavy piece of luggage, and then approached a woman about my age, pointing to my ticket and then to my row. She nodded her head, and when I showed the family, their young child of about 4 hopped up out of my window seat and, in cultural fashion, the mother who would've sat with me moved to the outside as the dad then moved next to me. It's just these small things to observe that just often tell us of others' cultures.

The train ride itself was very, very smooth. I didn't feel one blip in the track, and the ride itself was an express shot straight to Shanghai. However, I feel duped by false advertising, as this train is supposed to be insanely world class. However, the air conditioning was hardly on (and I was sweating from a warm brew of the heat and general ignorance of what's going on when I first sat down), no wifi, and no plug in for my phone / iPad, which is a far more important component of my ride now that the Chinese TSA confiscated my phone charger.

As you can ascertain above, I was pretty out of my element and felt quite uncomfortable when I first grabbed my seat. I tried to ignite an inner-calmness by watching a few videos on my iPad and then listening to music, but it wasn't until I listened to a podcast from home where they gave me props (so strange to hear my name when I'm 7,000 miles away) and also my new seat friend dumped gravy from his food on me not once, but twice. Christening by pork juice!

Now settled in a bit, I was able to really take in the sights of this journey. Having the window seat was the best part about it. As we left Beijing, I looked out to a vast forest of apartment complexes and many more being built. The fencing around the train coupled with the speed of the train almost out the gate made it seem like I was looking at a flip book of these massive buildings. Within 10 minutes of leaving Beijing (30ish miles) was the vast agricultural landscape that Mao tapped when he came to power just 68 years ago. Throughout all this countryside were nascent crops just entering their growth stages. Instead of sprinklers, they probably had decades' or hundreds' years old canals and irrigation systems. In a field of many acres, one could see the rare farmer and his or her wide brimmed hat tending to those crops with just the old hoe or shovel, or doing the more modern thing of walking and spraying for insects. The only "farm equipment" beyond that would be a motorcycle parked on the side of the road. No John Deeres here. 

Almost as rare as finding the farmer in all this land was the occasional grave site. When we first hit those open lands 10 minutes out, I didn't even know what I was looking at - a cemetery - as it looked like a bunch of walls adorned with colorful Easter eggs. As we continued on the journey, the grave sites lessened and became more rudimentary; those upright tombstones gave way to padded, grassless hills. Still, each one was always decorated with flowers (whether real or fake I couldn't tell) and always well kept, even when they were in the middle of a rice field.

Occasionally from time-to-time, a road would emerge with shops around it. However, these old villages were quite rare. What was more commonplace was just massive apartment complexes that seemed to rise for little reason other than their construction. When we travel the countrysides of America, those who live on the open fields would take the dozens of cranes constructing buildings at the same speed to be an affront on their way of life. But in China, that type of protest is both smited and possibly not even innate. 

Eventually I got to "talking" to the man next to me. His name was Wang Wie Qiang. He was there with his wife and grandson, who was about 6, and they were traveling to Shanghai to visit his family. By "talking," what I mean is I'd type rudimentary stuff into my Google Translate and then he'd motion or say the little English he knew in response. He showed me his trip to New York where he visited the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and 9/11 Memorial. He also went to the Grand Canyon. I told him I hand't been to the latter 2 spots, and he laughed. Then it got a bit weird when he showed me a cross-dressing beauty pageant in Thailand. How or why I know not, but I think he wanted to get a laugh out of me!

When we got to Shanghai Railway Station, I got off and became disoriented. I tried to go to an automated teller machine to buy a ticket, but didn't see an English version. Frommers, in my mind, lied! I waltzed around a bit and then my anxiety took me upstairs to the airport to try and move my flight up earlier. It's only domestic flights there, so then I felt like a fish out of water. However, when I came back downstairs, I saw the subway line Google Maps told me to look for AND a machine in English. I was back in business, baby!

The subway station and trains are crowded and gorgeous, massive and modern. I've never been on a system that was so nice! Apparently it's already the world's largest (shouldn't be a surprise in a city of this size), but it glided like a dream. On the train I saw a much more fashionable lot of people, young and old. One girl who came on had this beautiful dress, straw hat, and a fun lipstick purse. I pointed to it and gave her the thumbs up. She laughed when I jumped off at the wrong station and then jumped back on.

As soon as I hopped out the subway, I had a great view of the skyline. It was already going on 9p, so I just wanted to get to the hotel and unwind. The hotel is as advertised: chic, French, modern. It's much smaller than the other 2 I've stayed in, but everything here is crisp, beautiful, and well-kept. I was happy to plop my head down on the pillow.

And eat! I hadn't noticed the anxiety made me not even hungry. I took a quick stop at a convenience mart to get some food and water, then back to the hotel to eat the like 8 lbs of snacks that Lori (teacher from OH) gave me before they all left. 

Finally fell asleep  after having the staff mess with my A/C for a bit (we're spoiled in the US when it comes to AC). I fell asleep before midnight and slept past 8a - a first great night sleep here in China, despite the warmth.

As I write this, I can't help but think of my heart back home. Devin, my wife, is doing a last walk through with our Realtor before closing tomorrow morning (late this evening our time). I'm very excited for us and her, and hope everything goes well in the venture to our new home! 

As for me, I'm going to spend the day walking the streets of Shanghai. I plan to go towards those massive skyscrapers first for some breakfast. Hopefully I can meet up with my buddy Lippy's cousin who lives here sometime tomorrow.