Tianjin

Asia » China » Tianjin
January 6th 2009

Published: January 6th 2009

The train from Nanjing was a sleeper train which when we boarded at 11 pm seemed like it was going to be easy. Get on, go to sleep, wake up, get off. As usual this wasn’t the case. We got on board and found that our bunks where in the middle of a 3 high bunk bed. This was ok but the guy above was snoring pretty loudly which was pretty annoying plus I like to sleep with all my belongings on an overnight train as you never really know whose around when you’re sleeping. We eventually got to sleep and I was awoken at around 7 thinking the train was getting in soon so I slowly woke myself up and then waited a while to wake Becca. I looked out of the window and was horrified when I saw frozen rivers and snow !!!!!! . being a person who has pretty much been in the sunshine for the last 2 years I was absolutely devastated to see snow and ice. The train it turned out arrived at noon so I had woken up for nothing. When we got there we knew for the first time where we were going. We used the lonely planet which told us that a place called the home in was a nice place to stay so we walked from the train station straight there and there was no problems at all for the first time yet lol.
After settling in we only had one night here as it was time to go Beijing the next day. As there isn’t that much to see In this town we walked around and the first thing we saw was the river which we walked along were they seem to be building a brand new financial area which will bring a lot of money to the town but I feel at the moment this is a place where you can visit for the day from Beijing if you really want to as it wasn’t that amazing. We found a mall and decided to get out of the cold for a bit so we went in there and had a look around and had a bit of fun by trying on a few coats and I actually bought some long johns as it was definitely cold enough to willingly feel like a tool and where them. We walked back through a kind of esplanade area back to the hotel .
The next morning, we got up and as there wasn’t too much to see just took a stroll around the town looking at shops mainly and they were very much in the Christmas spirit which was surprising to me as my thoughts were that the Chinese didn’t celebrate Christmas but I have come to realise that the younger generations are very much influenced by western culture whereas the older generations are still quite traditional at heart. So after looking around at the stores we finally decided to go to Beijing. We got to the train station and bought the tickets and I was absolutely ecstatic to find that I was going to go on a bullet train !!!!!!
We got on board and sat down and the train set off slowly through the city and I was desperately waiting for the speed to pick up and eventually we started. The train had a speed information sign that flashed up every minute and up it went 100 km , 150 km , 200, 299, 300 331 !!!! 331kph !!!!!!!! that is to me and you are not Chinese or European or from oz or nz so basically America and England , 218 miles per hour on a train. This is possibly the happiest ive been on public transport ever. Beijing here we come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved