Cold enough to snow I Says

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Remarked to Martin on Saturday evening that it felt like it could snow, it just had THAT feel to it. This remarked was scoffed at!



The next morning we awoke to SNOW. A very early cold snap and freezing winds had come in from Siberia blanketing the north with snow including Beijing.

Martin had never seen snow before and this made the trip even more exciting for him.



We stayed holed up in the youth hostel in the morning, rain and 2-3 degrees with already wet clothes, were not the greatest enticement to want to make you go out and about.

We played an English game of trivial pursuit which provided a few laughs at our ignorance of things which were obviously important in the UK.

And had an excellent breakfast and coffee from Leo’s Youth Hostel who manage to cook western food passably and also make great coffee.



Midday we had to leave so we made our way to Beijing South Train Station for our 1-48pm departure on the G trains to Jinan.

Making our way to the main road we attempted to flag a taxi down and were immediately offered a “taxi” for Y100- by a man standing next to a cab drawn up on the side of the road.

Great said Martin, here’s one. No its not! Another “black taxi” tout attempting a grand rip off.

I laughed him off and flagged down a real cab, Martin is still looking for the cab ranks and the convenient place to pull over) and we arrived safe and sound for the grand total of Y20-. Toilet pit stop on the way for the driver, he just turned cab off and out he went. Left us and cab.



Beijing South train station is a very big and soon to be expanded station, many restaurants, shops, ATMS, toilets, lockers, seats, think major airport.

We killed time, ate at a lovely place with an English menu and pictures (bonus) and boarded our G train to Jinan, approximately 2 hour trip with the top speed achieved of 302kms an hour.

The sensation is not one of speeding at all, the train leans into the curves, you can see outside easily, it’s very pleasant and an easy way to travel.



The country side looked so pretty covered in its first snow blanket of the year.

Arriving back in Jinan where it had also snowed all day we went walking along HuaYuan Lu to HongLu Square and back to JiShan Lu for a bit of the flavour of like in this city.

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Photos

Snow!
Martin grabbed a handful and threw it at me

SNOW
The view from our "fridge" ledge in the hostel

Toilet stop
Cab driver got out and left us in his cab

Lunch time
Hot soy milk and Hong Kong Egg tart for me and dumplings and fish ball soup for Martin

G train
Can do speeds of 350kms an hour

2pm snow on the ground
Still not melted by 2pm, cold wind and 2-3 degrees all day

Whooo hoo
302kms an hour

Hua Yuan Lu
Sunday night walk in the freezing cold

Street food
This is my bread pancake, with an scrambled egg cooked to it and filled with lettuce and cucumber and spicy sauce

Things on sticks
The piece of chicken was great and ducks neck not so said Martin