The Road to Shanghai

Saturday August 9th

We awake in Epoch City.

The entire orchestra descends the elevators to board buses.

We stop for lunch.


We are deposited at Silk Road Market for shopping.

"Lady Lady" the vendors call out "Lady LADY"



The vendors tug, pull, cajole. The vendors smile and plead.





Joseph is fascinated by the faux-lex watches.

Many of the group buy an extra suitcase for all the treasures we have accumulated.

Destie and Gina see a Starbucks across the street.

Crossing the street would be like bungee jumping with an extra long cord. Fortunately there are underground passages.


Beneath the street there are... MORE VENDORS!


We emerge at the Starbucks. We need a Beijing cup to add to our collection. The bathroom is remarkable- it had toilet seat covers!


Beijing's efforts at beautification are evident.

We enjoy the leaping lady topiary.

At 5 pm, we board the buses. Everyone is drenched in sweat. Perfect condiontion to go to the train station.

Buses are not allowed in the train station parking lot, so we park 2 blocks away. The wheel on my suitcase, now over 50 lbs, promptly crumples. It is difficult to keep up with the group.

The train station is not airconditioned, and has the gentle aroma of urea. We have almost 2 hours to wait for the train. Some partake of the fastfood offerings: KFC or McDonalds. The girls and I have chicken and rice.

Fortunately for me, for 10 yuan a porter will take your suitcase down the stairs to the train. He abruptly deposits the suitcase outside the train. I get it up the 3 steep stairs and into the narrow hall. The hall has a carpet that bunches up under the broken wheel

Kett in the hall...

Each berth has two bunkbeds. The suitcases for four people take up every inch of floor space, and must be arranged properly to fit.

The beds are long enough, and fairly comfortable.

Destie and Gina and I share a room with a girl who says "you can call me Tina". I ask her is she is a student and she says "yes". I ask what she is studying, and she says "Tourism". That is all Tina said in the 11 hours we spent together.

Destie responds by turning upsidedown.

We start moving quickly after boarding. The sun sets, so there isn't much opportunity to see the passing sights.

In the morning, we are warned that the train will only stop for 15 minutes. We must disembark quickly.

Kevin is ready to get off the train.

We are met by cheerful people with red signs.

This person from Fresno State is happy to be in Shanghai:

Noelle is happy to be in Shanghai:

The whole mob is happy to be led to the buses.

We are all desperately in want and need of a shower, but first we are taken to breakfast. The breakfast was actually very good. We had steamed buns with pork, watermelon, fried eggs (!), chow mein, toast, soup. Modesto High was in a private room. It was a trifle warm.

And now we are staying at the Galaxy Hotel.

It is Sunday the 10th and we are ready to rock and roll!