Saturday March 19, 2016

Cranes, bullet trains, and almost getting killed by automobiles.

Today we partook of a bit of civil infrastructure that makes the US look positively banana republic-like in comparison, saw the Chinese Jesus, and said goodbye to the King. Not an incredibly eventful day in comparison to recent events, but we did change cities, leaving Beijing for Hefei and the second stop on our tour of the Chinese mainland. All good things must come to an end just as good things come to those who wait. I’ve no problem mixing aphorisms as long as you guys don’t have any problem trying to decipher them. Deal? Deal.

Another reasonable, mid-morning start today that Dorothy and I wasted waking long before the sun itself rose. We breakfasted and packed with the practiced efficiency that only comes from long stretches of suitcase living. We’ve even considered going pro. Once the rest of our clan joined us among the conscious and fed we spent our last free hour in Beijing walking the streets killing time. Another sunny day, if not brisker than the previous one

We happened across the surprising find of a Roman Catholic church not far from our hotel and went in just to see what it was like, and yes indeed, it was your typical Roman Catholic church as promised. Nothing else to see here, so move along. We next stopped at another Western holy site: a McDonald’s, also merely to satisfy the morbid curiosity of nonbelievers. I myself refused to go in as my agnosticism towards crappy hamburgers is much more pronounced than my atheism as the latter relates to a supreme being. Dorothy and the kids made a quick tour inside however, emerging none the worse for wear.

After our brief pilgrimage, we checked out of the hotel, met up for our last Arthurian-led expedition and prepared to exit Beijing, stage left. Our mode of transport for the day’s journey was the Chinese bullet train. And yes, it lived up to its name as it relates to rate of speed. Moving at over 300km/hr we zipped through the countryside at a velocity that would make the sadly antiquated, and grossly inferior Amtrak service in the US wet its pants. The bullet train ran on schedule (to the minute!), was spotlessly clean, comfortable, and efficiently run. It was both a pleasant trip and a relatively uneventful one. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty much all one can ask for when traveling with three kids through a foreign country where you don’t speak the language.

And while I know that the Chinese economy is in a bit of a slump (if one considers 6% annual growth a “slump” — and no, almost every other country would not) but the amount of construction we saw on the 4 hour train ride from Beijing to Hefei was astounding. Cranes, windmills, rising high-rise buildings, sprawling in-progress business parks, the rate of growth appeared unchecked. Now I’m not an economist, nor an expert on real estate speculation, but I can’t fathom how all of these buildings can begin to be filled. I know there’s several billion Chinese people, but it seemed to me that all of them could have easily occupied the ongoing construction along the path of our journey.

Before we knew it we arrived at Heifei Nan (south) train station. Here we were met by Mr. Hong, our tour van driver, and Georgiana, our bubbly, fluently English-speaking, tour guide. A quick trip to the hotel where we quickly hammered out some issues with our sleeping arrangements, then a quick trip to the supermarket, followed by a quick noodle dinner, after which everyone quickly fell fast asleep.

Not much more to tell about today, but tomorrow we visit the Hefei Zoo, a local Temple, with a few other stops in between. Hopefully we’ll have more to talk about then.

Leaping unfinished buildings with a single bound…Faster than a speeding bullet train…