Saturday Sept 24th
J has gone off to the Museum while I clean up, pack, check out and sit in the foyer “watching” the AFL semi-final on the internet. We should just about be able to get the final score before we head for the train station. In fact I found 6PR and sat in Beijing listening to bloody McGuire and Bunnings adverts. No comment on the footie.
The train trip went off smoothly. The trains were clean (except for the toilets) and very comfortable (for a day trip) but the seats did not recline at all. I had to get the conductor to bully some luggage space for us but we managed some fitful sleep. We had to shift somebody to get our seats and the 40ish lady who stayed seemed elegant and educated . Just not in English. I suggested J should show her the Granny photos, which she pored over and pointed at and asked who was this one and that one. Then we asked if she had children. She didn’t say anything but touched the outer corner of her eye. Not sure what to infer from that. Of course, China has the 1 child policy so this horde of children and grandchildren must have looked weird and maybe inappropriate. I found myself wondering why there was no graffiti on the windows of what was very much a working class conveyance, and why none of the youngsters seemed hostile, aggressive or unstable. In general, China seems very calm, ordered, harmonious and prosperous - rather like Singapore.
Beijing was slightly murky again and after about 100km it really got foul. This was a dense post-apocalyptic fog that seemed to hover just off the ground. We were going through farming land but every now and then there were very dense high rise complexes, maybe 30 stories high maybe 30 blocks. And a few factories, some with chimneys. Our train wasn’t particularly fast but there was a constant stream of trains heading the other way, some of which were going a fair pelt.
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