First impressions - getting from Beijing to Qingdao

I was thinking about what I wrote yesterday about civic mindedness and was actually thinking that I may have been a bit unfair. That comment presumes that my understanding or even opinion of being civic minded is the correct and exclusive one. And it is rather judgy of me to make comments about something I have not had personal experience with.

After 12 hours that I have been here though, I have already experienced a lot of what I had expected, but also some of the unexpected. Leaving the airport, I opted to take the bus the Beijing South Railway Station where I was to catch a train to Qingdao. That went well enough, though I think the lady from the agency who met me at the airport to give me my pre-purchased train ticket was a bit baffled that I was opting not to take a taxi. I might need to explain: As part of the package which the adoption travel agency prepared for Caroline included "transfer arrangement" for my arrival today which would include transportation from the airport to the train station in Beijing, and from the train station in Qingdao to the hotel. The actual train journey (and the cost of the ticket) from Beijing to Qingdao not being a part of this. For this transfer arrangement, I was quoted US$ 200. I opted out of it and decided I would make my way from the airport to the train station, and to the hotel at the other end on my own. I just needed to get my train ticket, which was why the lady was there. She was very sweet and friendly and pointed me in the right direction, and reassured me that even given bad traffic on the road, I should be fine on the bus. I suspect the bus doesn't take a very much different route from the taxi, but has the disadvantage of leaving only once every half hour. I missed previous bus by 5 minutes so I had to wait for the next one which departed 10 minutes ahead of schedule because it had enough passengers.

I have nothing much to say about the bus journey having slept through most of it. I got off and the railway station and followed the crowd to the entrance where we had to get our bags scanned before entering. There was nothing which really resembled a queue. People slid in and dropped their bags on the conveyor belt wherever there was a sufficient gap in the crowd. Quite a change from Sweden, where reserve and non intrusion of anyone else's personal space reigns supreme. I remembered my mum's words of advice that I should just squeeze my way through like everyone else and resolved to recondition my thinking and behaviour. This proved to be helpful when queueing to get on to the platform for the train. There were a lot of people in two queues from opposite ends of the hall which met in the middle. There was quite a bit of confusion as to which queue ended where. That didn't seem matter. The strategy seemed to be just to stand close even to someone as to be pushing them slightly. They shuffle forward or to the side until there is enough room for you to pass without necessarily acknowledging you. Every once in a while someone would have to ask to be let through, when the gentle pushing went unnoticed. When in Rome...

On the train, and again contrary to what I have learnt to expect from living in Sweden but in a different way, the young man who was in the seat next to mine, jumped up and helped me to put my small rucksack on the overhead rack before I even knew what was going on. Five minutes later, another man got up and helped a girl several rows ahead with her bags. The bag might have to fall on someone's head before people would offer help on the trains in Sweden.

The train journey though, was not the most pleasant. At least two families had a portable DVD player with them and were watching something or other with the volume on full. I drained my already low battery listening to music to drown out the noise. The young man next to me let me use his charger on the train. Towards the end of the journey, one woman started belching every two minutes or so (louring with her mouth open and facing in our general direction) for about an hour!!

By the time I arrived at Qingdao, it was dark and I was tired, and really needed to pee. I couldn't bring myself to use the toilet on the train because I could smell it from a mile (okay, a few metres) away. Getting a taxi was interesting. I couldn't see any official looking taxi rank so got a taxi from one of the louts which hovered around all the people exiting the station. I picked one and we set off. The boot would not close with my bag in it, but I was reassured that it was fine. She drove about twenty metres, stopped and got out of the car promising to the back in two minutes. There was the official taxi rank. She went to lure any other passengers who wanted to go in the same direction as me. She found another lady and off we set, the car boot creaking open every time we went over a bump. Farther along, she slowed down to talk to some other taxi drivers parked along the side of the road. Then she stopped and got out of the car, again promising to be back I'm two minutes. I said "again, two minutes?!" It turned out that the fact that the second passenger wanted to get a lottery ticket was the reason behind the second stop. I made it known that I had just come from a 9 hour flight plus a 5 hour train ride so I was really tired and wanted to get to my room so I can sleep. She said, "hao, hao" (good, good) and off the went again. She inexplicably pulled up again and got out of the car, well, inexplicable to me because my Mandarin is nowhere near good enough to make sense I what she was trying to tell me, and she disappeared. A man appeared and got into the car and drove off.

One of the things I had read about to look out for in China was fake currency, particularly when paying taxi drivers. Their largest note is 100 Yuan. Supposedly, taxi drivers secretly swap a 100 Yuan note you give them with a fake one and give it back to you, telling you they can't accept it because it's fake. So you end up taking the fake one back and giving them another one. I was worried about this on my taxi ride, so took a picture of the 100 Yuan note which I was intending to give her / later, him in case it got swapped. It didn't and all was well. I arrived fine at the so far lovely hotel, got into my lovely room, have a nice bath and am ready for bed.

Before that though, I had another piece of the many unknown pastry thingys I got at the train station. I stopped at the mini market and got some "prawn sweets" which I loved as a child. There was a bakery section where I asked for one each of everything as I couldn't understand what she was telling me they were. I am slowly making my way through them, though not necessarily wiser as to what they are.