Train Tickets

It was rainy and cool this morning so we had a slow morning of home schooling and then we decided to go book our train tickets to Hong Kong. We don't leave until Oct 13, but we wanted to get them booked because Nadim was afraid of the train filling up. We couldn't book them from home because they only go on sale 20 days prior to the departure date.So, off we went to the subway.

It was a long trip because we were going from the northeast end of town to the southwest part of town where the train station is. Once we exit the subway there are no English signs as usual, so we start following a guy pulling a suitcase. Sure enough this leads us to the train station. We find our way to a sea of people waiting in line to buy tickets. China's national holiday is coming up and everyone seems to be going somewhere.

We wait in a line that says "English speaking agent". Excellent, we thought, until we get to the agent and she doesn't speak English! She directs us to another line that claims to have an English speaking agent, and we think we're in luck because this one speaks broken English. We try to get our tickets, but she tells us that they don't come on sale until 7:00 tonight. It's only 1:30 at this point.... Do we stay around for another 5 hours, or do we go home and make the 1 hour and 20 minute trip (that includes walking to and from the subway as well as the ride itself) again tomorrow. Uggg!

Off we went for some lunch, and to study our map and make a plan. On the way to lunch we stopped at a large hotel and got a concierge who spoke English fairly well to write down in Chinese our destination, departure date, and the type of tickets we wanted (soft sleeper, which is two bunk beds in a private room). We weren't leaving anything to chance for our next visit to a ticket agent!

There was a KFC across the street and the girls were interested in that so we thought we'd see if the food was the same. It was NOT! The bun might have been the same and perhaps the fries if they had have been hot, but the meat quality and crispiness left a lot to be desired.

After a quick look at the map we decide to walk back towards the subway where there is a park. It's stopped raining by that time, but it was still cool. We stopped along the way to check out some shops and burn some time.

The park had an exercise area where they had places to stretch, bars, some interesting equipment that you use your own body for the weights. The girls had a great time and we enjoyed people watching. I think they enjoyed watching us too.

Beijingers seem to exercise for a few minutes on their way to where ever they're going. They are often dressed in work clothes or other non-workout gear when they do their exercises. Funny to think of us North Americans and all the work out and sports gear that we invest in.

Eventually we made our way back to the station and booked our tickets. By this time it was fully dark outside. We walked back to the subway and made our way home arriving just before 9:00 pm. The kids went straight to bed. They were really tired, but this is a good thing because it means that they probably won't wake at 4:00 am as they had been because of the time change.

Tomorrow we are planning a slow day. I think it's supposed to rain again.

CM