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Today I walked around and got a feel for the city. Another observation about Qingdao is that there are a lot more big dogs than in Beijing. There’s a tiny kitten that seems to wander around this hostel though.
I got my train ticket to Guangzhou. Should be interesting—all they had left at the travel agency and train station were hard seats. It’s about a 28 hour journey. Hopefully getting from Guangzhou to Hong Kong will be relatively painless. Arranging train tickets is one of the most stressful things about traveling in China as far as I’m concerned. On the one hand, China is very well-connected by rail. If the US could figure out cross-country transportation half as well, it would make life a lot easier. On the other, there’s a whole lot of people who want to use the system in China. It seems mostly I don’t get the ticket I want. What makes it interesting is that for most trips, you can only book tickets 10 days in advance (and that’s for a trip that originates at the station you’re buying it at; if it originates at a different station, it could be as little as 2 days in advance). There’s some tickets that you can reserve 20 days in advance (fancy express trains), and others (international) that you can reserve 30-60 days in advance. You also have to book a ticket at the station where the train will depart. There are ticket offices which can get the job done for an added fee, which is a helpful option if you’re a long way from the train station. There are getting to be online services geared to foreigners that will charge you twice as much, but that seems a bit excessive, and they only deliver the tickets to certain areas. This site tells more information. Anyway, the trip from Guangzhou to Hong Kong should take less than 2 hours by train. Luckily there are plenty of options. Another lucky thing is that I end up at the east station in Guangzhou, and that’s also where the trains to Hong Kong depart. Hopefully my luck keeps up and I can get a ticket once I get to Guangzhou.
The guy who served me my baozi at lunch was pretty sure I was Russian. But at the train station, there was a guy who thought I was American, based on my New Balance shoes. He said Europeans probably wouldn’t wear them. He said he was an American—born in San Francisco.
I forgot to mention yesterday that there’s a TV in my hostel room. It gets quite a few channels, including international., according to the service guide. There’s also a telephone. Carpeted floor, too. Fancy place, for sure. The woman I talked to last night gave me a book tonight since she is leaving tomorrow and already read it and doesn’t want to pack it. I'll take whatever I can get for the train ride.

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