Dong Ming/Beijing - Travel Day (11/30): Online Training & Beijing Arrival

I just wrote a nice long entry, but it got “poofed” by my stupid browser crashing. Ah well … Long story short. I’m on a train heading to Beijing but able to get online courtesey of my wireless internet card.

This morning I woke up, got my things together, did a quick blog from the day before, showered and headed over to the Wang’s where I got some breakfast. Dumplings — which you eat when leaving on a journey … as opposed to noodles which you eat when arriving at your destination. (Probably just some big scheme by the dumpling and noodle consortium of China.)

Breakfast to say goodbye

We said some goodbyes at the house but then made our way 30 minutes down the road to the train station in Heze. e waited for the train (40 minutes late) and said our teary-eyed goodbyes to everyone. It’s sad to leave, but I know I’ll see them again so I’m not too worried. It’s harder for Jenn and Wang Wei though since they probably won’t be back for at least another year or two. I’ve already planned to come back to Shandong for training at the end of February.

Jennifer and 2nd Cousin say goodbye

The Wang Brothers and their farewell

2nd Cousin, Mrs. Wang and Xiao Yan

A man waiting for a train to the past

Hugs and tears all around

Eventually we got to our hard sleeper booth (6 beds, no door) and settled in for the 6 hour trip to Beijing. Jenn and Wang Wei are sleeping on their bunks and I’m writing this but I’ll probably take a quick cat nap before long.

Here are a few quick phone camera pics I was able to upload for you.
Enjoy! I stuck them in my Shandong 2006 gallery which is a miracle considering my connection speed.

My trusty laptop

A sleeping Wang Wei

Wang Wei getting snacks

Jennifer in the dining car

CONTINUED …

We managed to arrive in Beijing fairly quickly. The whole rip was not the 6 hours I was originally led to believe, but more like 4.5 hours. We got off the train, had some strange drama with my SIM card at a convenience store, and then got to have the world’s dumbest taxi driver try to take us to the hotel where Jet is staying.

A day earlier I was talking to Jason online and he mentioned that I could crash with them in a spare room / bed they had. Since free is way better than “not free”, I said sure and they put me in a double room (2 beds) with Jet’s masseuse. We got to the (incredibly oppulant 5 star) hotel and met up with Jason who introduced me to the massage guy and met Wang Wei for the first time. We pretty much stayed there for about 5 minutes, dropped off all my stuff, and then made our way to the hotel where Jennifer and Wang Wei were going to stay.

Jennifer and Wang Wei’s Hotel

It was just around the corner from their old home at the Jin Lu Hotel. After getting them checked in we headed over to Hou Hai and ate at the Xiao Chi place on the corner. We had made a list of all the different foods we wanted to eat while in Beijing and which meals we would eat them and that was first on the list.

The food was great, but we still weren’t terribly hungry since we had eaten on the train shortly before it arrived in Beijing. After that we took a nice leisurely walk around Hou Hai to the Jiu Ba area where we met up with Wu Di and his two friends to say hello. That was also a very quick greeting because they had to get going and we were fairly tired, but I managed to get Li Yan’s phone number so that I could arrange for the training at Renmin Daxue the next day. It turns out they train around 4:00 p.m.

Our first meal in Beijing

But we felt like sitting down for a bit so we walked into a small jiu ba and actually had a really nice relaxing time and ended up spending about 2 or 3 hours just relaxing in these big chairs, listening to these two musicians sing incredibly well, and playing card games while eating popcorn and lambsticks. It was very much an ideal evening for me and whe we left at midnight I was quite ready to call it a night.

I grabbed a cab, headed back to my hotel and went to bed (with some of the softest pillows I’ve ever felt in my life).

One thing I noticed though, since I haven’t been to Beijing since the summer, is that they’re really beefing up their work on making it look more presentable. All the buses are brand new, all the taxis look super nice (one of the taxis we rode in was nicer than most of the taxis I ride in when I’m in Japan — with better service even) and there are all sorts of new businesses and renovated buildings and roads that just 6 months ago looked quite different. By 2008 I probably won’t even recognize this town anymore. They sure are pulling out all the stops.

I also finally got a decent bandwidth connection which means that all my old entries from 11/27, 11/28, 11/29 and on, all have their photos integrated. Be sure to check those out and go to my massive Shandong 2006 gallery (with a total of 395 photos!) if you want to see more. This also marks the start of a new gallery, as I’m no longer in Shandong. I’ve maxed out my first web account on picasa, so I started another. You can view my 2006.11.30 - Beijing Gallery here.

And, as another special treat I was able to upload my “goodbye shandong wushu team” video to youtube so you can check that out too.
Click here to see it.