Train to Nanjing

Tues, August 4

Mike

Got a good early start. Curtis had his breakfast at McDonalds. I ate two peaches I had bought in the market in Luoyang and had been carrying. Nothing on the street interested me.

We caught a taxi to the train station (taxi was 6 or 7, motorized rickshaw was 8 - go figure.) Got to the train station about 7:45 AM for our 8:30 train, which turned out to be a 8:23 train. Glad we didn't cut it closer. We sat in the waiting room, and then when the crowd got up, we got up. We were in car 4, so they put us in the line for car 4. Everything is so tightly calibrated that the door for the 4th car in the train opens exactly where the people who are going to get in car 4 are standing.

Curtis had seats 75 and 76, which were not adjacent, but window seats in adjoining rows. Anyway, the seating was already screwed up, so we took seats 74 and 75. The Chinese woman in 73 said fine, and when someone later came to sit in 74, she waved them off and protected our seats.

We were in 2nd class on the fast train (203 km/hr). This train goes from Kaifeng to Nanjing in 4 hrs 7 minutes. Others do the same trip in 9 hours or so. The only difference between 1st class and 2nd class is 1st class has 85 seats per car, and 2nd class has 100 seats per car. The seats are exactly the same with the same configuration, but you get an extra 17 or 18% leg room. Anyway, it is a moot question, because nobody seems to be able to buy 1st class tickets. Goodness knows how early you have to reserve to have a chance at them. Certainly more than 4 days, perhaps as much as 30-90 days.

On the train I bought a bag of popcorn that the vendor popped for me. 8 Y - just like in America, except that the popcorn is not salted and buttered, but has a sweetish taste with a hint of licorice.

We got in just at 12:30. We took the time at the train station to buy our Nanjing - Shanghai tickets. We picked out a couple of trains at 9 AM or so, each taking 3 + hours. Curtis stayed with the bags, and I got in the long line. As I waited, they flashed the available seats on all trains from 7 Aug - 13 Aug. Lots of categories alreadly sold out. I explained that I wanted two tickets on D115 at 9:15 (or so) on Aug 6. "Mei you" - sold out. How about D 131 at 9:35 or so on Aug 6. Also sold out. We went up to the fast trains, and finally found two 2nd class seats on D5311, leaving at 9:03 and getting in at 11:15 or so to Shanghai. 93 Y (instead of 46 Y). This took well over 30 minutes, but it was done. Heaven forfend you should show up like at the bus stations and ask for 2 tickets on the next train.

The hotel was on the west side of old Nanjing about 5 - 6 km away, and the subway ran from the train station to the center of town, about 1 km from the hotel. So we went into the subway. To get tickets, you go to the machines, press the name of your intended station, put in the money, and it drops two plastic tokens and some change. You wave the token at the gate to get in, and drop the token in the slot to get out. The trains are clean and beautiful. Line 1, the north-south line, seems to be no more than several years old. Line 2, the east-west line, is under construction. We badly needed it. There is to be a station near our hotel, and near 2 or 3 of the tourist sites we were to visit.

From the downtown station, Xinjiekou, we took a cab - 10 Y - to the hotel. It is spacious, and a little on the seedy side, but once the hotel staff showed out how to make the A/C work (oops, it was unplugged), everything was fine. The hotel key is required to allow the electricity into the room. You enter the room, put your hotel key into the slot, and the lights come on. No key, no lights (except that in Xi'an, the cleaning crew kept the A/C on by stuffing a fake key-like piece of paper into the slot). So Curtis permanently "borrowed" the fake key. We had A/C all afternoon in Nanjing, and a beautiful cold room when we came back later.

Several errands later, it was well past 2:30 PM. We decided to go to the Nanjing Museum, which unfortunately closed at 4:30 PM. At the hotel desk, they pulled out the map, and we figured out that the 5 bus went there. So we walked out, found a map of the city, with bus routes thereon, found the 5 bus, and were on our way. I was very proud when we got off, right across the street from the museum. However, it was now 3:30. The museum was free, but we had only 45 minutes to race through as they were turning out the lights behind us. A very nice museum, rather like the Shanghai Museum, with rooms on ceramics, jade, lacquer, porcelain, etc.

After the museum, we noted that the guidebook said that Shiziqiao off Hunan Lu was a street of restaurants. Hunan Lu was a stop on the subway, so we took the 5 bus back to Xinjiekou, and then 3 stops north to Shiziqiao. As we were walking, we noted that qiao sort of means alley, and we found an alley that the guy said was Shiziqiao. So in we went - almost no restaurants, but I was really hungry. So I stopped at a soup place, picked out chinese cabbage, lettuce, tofu, and some sort of small meat ball. They threw it all in the soup and served it - 3 Y. I didn't know you had to specify noodles also to get noodles, so I had soup without noodles. Spicy and garlicky and reasonably tasty, for an appetizer.

Back onto Hunan Rd. One block down was the real Shiziqiao. Restaurant on restaurant after restaurant. Too many decisions. We settled on a sit down place that turned out to be NE China food (Heilongjiang or Manchurian). They seated us at a table for 8 that already had a young couple and a family sitting. The husband, wife, and daughter all spoke English, and they helped us order eggplant with potatoes and peppers and a second dish with beef with cumin. Really tasty, just what we wanted. We decided on Punjabi food for the next night.

Afterwards for internet. The new word for internet is no longer "wang ba" (Internet cafe). It is now "wang luo" (fishingnet sewingnet). Got to be up to date in Kansas City.


Subway and walk the km back to the hotel. Did the last 2 shirts (last washing) and to bed.

Curtis

We took the fast train (avg. speed of about 180/k/p/h) from Kaifeng this morning. We arrived in Nanjing this morning. Nanjing was yet another of China's old capitals, at least for a brief time during the beginning of the Ming dynasty.

Feeling much better, we had an excellent dinner in the restaurant district off Hunan Street. After making an exhaustive search, I spotted a place that was full of clientele, and saw that some were having rice (which has been a scarcity for the last several days). We went in, to what turned out to be a Manchurian restaurant (Harbin city in Heilongjiang province). The restaurant has only large round tables, so you get seated wherever there is a spot. We lucked out, and were seated with a family that spoke some English. They helped us with our selection of beef and onions with cumin and eggplant, potatoes and peppers stir fried. Everything was delicious, so I am again at peace with Chinese cuisine, or at least at a comfortable truce.