Slow Train to Beijing

E and the evils of technology

We took the overnight train to Beijing, thinking that E might be more manageable on a 14-hour journey with two sleeping berths than on the super high-speed (5 hours) nowhere-to-escape bullet train by day.  Despite all the revenue streaming into the new Shanghai-Beijing high-speed lines, the older T train sleeper was still in stellar condition and less expensive, even with our 2-berth “upgrade”.

Hostel Room

One of the many miracles of the Shanghai experience is that my one-year bout with chronic insomnia has all but disappeared! There was something so comforting about falling in and out of sleep as the train twisted and turned and rasped along the tracks. We woke somewhere north of Shanghai to the scent of cigarette smoke in the adjacent compartment and spied a waxing moon shining down on a rice field.  Just out of Beijing I spotted a solitary man jogging through a culvert while the rest of the city slept.

Tian Anmen

In Beijing we found a room in a hostel amid the hutongs, or alleys, some of the oldest walled compounds in the city, a testament to the intimate, walled culture of family and home.   Later that day we attempted a tourist assault on the Forbidden City, where we were overwhelmed by the largest concentration of people we’ve ever seen in one place at one time (thanks in part to it being summer vacation in China). After sweating our way back to the hostel we met a local man standing at the gate who asked us why we chose this part of town to stay. He said it was mostly a Chinese area, and very dirty, and that most tourists stay elsewhere in newer hotels.  We were beginning to conclude that self-deprecation was a decidedly Chinese characteristic, as we’d met our share of locals who’d repeatedly bashed and slandered their culture and their landscapes without cause, despite living in areas of enormous intrigue and beauty.  The truth is that despite the grandeur of Tian’ anmen and the Forbidden City, strolling among the hutongs has been the biggest highlight of our time in the North. And as Casey says: “Pretty much everything else is forbidden here when you have a toddler!”

Hutong

We’ve met lots of mostly younger backpackers here at the hostel who regale us with stories of how they spent their day.  “I rode my bicycle to Tian’ anmen Square and later visited the Summer Palace!  I went shopping at the pearl market and did a city bus tour after a lunch of pork dumpings!  We find ourselves countering with: “We made it to the store to buy milk and managed to use the Beijing Metro to unsuccessfully purchase train tickets to the Great Wall!” If we can squeeze in a side trip to the Great Wall in between E’s nap times, we’ll post some photos.  Otherwise, tomorrow begins the most anticipated portion of our journey yet: the K23 overnight to Ulaan Baatar, where we’ll see less populated sections of the wall en route to Mongolia. Fingers crossed that passengers in the train compartment follow the rules and keep their Magnificent Sound cigarettes stowed.