Arriving in Hangzhou at high speed

On May 20th I succeeded in posting an immediate report of our train journey from Beijing to Suzhou, so I shan't repeat all that now. I hadn't succeeded in taking many photos on the way, but here are one or two, plus one of the crowded concourse at Suzhou the following day, where we waited for the connection to our destination, Hangzhou.

Beijing Nan station, where we said goodbye to Sha and George

Hilly scenery on the journey south, somewhere between Jinan and Xuzhou

A more typical view from the train–I took this one as we rode through Nanjing

People waiting for their trains at Suzhou central station

May 21st, Saturday

Our bed at the Marriot in Suzhou

We'd stopped overnight at a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Suzhou, something of a culture shock after our recent, more down to earth experiences.

In the morning we had time for a walk near the hotel before catching our midday bullet train to Hangzhou. We were curious to see whether a southern city would be much different from Beijing, not a fair comparison of course, because we were in a different kind of neighbourhood in any case, an "industrial park" according to the official description, between the old, walled part of Suzhou and Jin Ji Lake. I won't include links to those places because we never saw them, but it would be interesting to go back one day.

Kite stall in the Huxi park, Suzhou

We wandered through the Huxi Community park, brand new and pleasant, featuring sculptures, oleanders in flower, palms and bamboos and an international row of flags. Children were playing with kites; we passed the kite vendor. The park was close to a primary school that looked like a high tech institution, kids in uniform lining up inside even though it was a Saturday and an "experimental" middle school (its name translated into English for the benefit of outsiders).

As the bellboy called a taxi for us on his cellphone a barrage of firecrackers went off behind the opposite buildings; he thought it might be to celebrate the opening of a new store. In the China Daily that day it was reported that a murderer's life sentence had also been celebrated by firecrackers outside the court. This had been a road rage incident, the perpetrator a piano student at the conservatory whose parents had been forcing him to practise. A sad story.

Peking Opera on the Departures board at Suzhou

The taxi ride to the station was terrifying, then we stood around for two hours watching the Peking Opera clips screened on the Departures board before leaving Suzhou on train G7383. This one reached a speed of 280 kph within five minutes of pulling out of the station and eventually 350 kph (twice as fast as we can fly in our Cessna 172). The ride was very smooth and comfortable. We realised later that the tracks lay on concrete stilts for the whole distance, a tremendous bit of engineering; the height above the surrounding terrain gives passengers a good view, albeit a rather monotonous one, of the high rise blocks, cranes and the series of canalised rivers. Motorways also appeared to be on stilts while below were leafy avenues. We were in red, plush, reclining chairs with more legroom than on the previous day and complimentary newspapers in Chinese (though more of the announcements broadcast through the train were in English this time): "Welcome to CRH ... next stop Hongqiao, Shanghai. Please have a pleasant journey on our train!"

We crossed a wide river (the Huangpu?) full of barges, after which came a view of wheat fields and rice paddies with scarecrows in them, many lotus ponds, and old fashioned canal boats, this quasi rural scenery lying between residential areas with whitewashed houses that looked almost European, but I couldn't identify the trees. Many crops were being burned that day, which added to the smog. The Shanghai suburbs effectively continued all the way to Hangzhou, itself a city of around 10 million.

Our first sight of the Intercontinental Hotel

Chris had emailed Andy, the QNX sales manager from Shanghai, to confirm our time of arrival in Hangzhou and there he was to meet us in pink trousers and a smart T-shirt––a very friendly and very helpful young gentleman, with his QNX programmed Blackberry and Playbook ever at the ready. We got to know him better as time went by because he kept coming to see us in Hangzhou. On our arrival he snapped his fingers and a minivan driver pulled over to take us and our luggage to the Intercontinental Hotel, our home for the next four weeks.

"If ever you get lost in Hangzhou," said Andy, "ask any taxi driver to take you to the Golden Ball, the jīnsì de qiu!" and as he spoke, we saw it loom through the haze ahead of us on the road.

Our arrival at the hotel and first evening in Hangzhou merits a blogpost all to itself, so bear with me: I'll write about that anon.