(New) homeward bound

So the two weeks in Beijing are over, this meant it was time for the long journey south to Foshan, in Guangdong Province.  There were no exceptionally big goodbyes happening between us all – purely because of some of our very early check-out times. We left the hotel at 6am (some unlucky people had 4.30am departures) in order to get to the train station (one of many in Beijing) for our 10.30am departure.  To say we arrived sharp is an understatement – we were sitting in the departure room, having gone through ticket and passport checks, by 8.30am.  So after sitting in the station for a while, watching the world go by, - and blocking the aisles with all our worldly possessions- it was finally time to have our first proper go at Chinese style queuing.  As a whole queues here tend to be more of a (slightly) orderly bunch than single or double file line. So it basically turned into a few minutes of dodging feet, bags, people and insane amounts of food, as we made our way towards the platform entrance. 

Originally we thought we were going to be on the slow train which would have taken us 25 hours to get from Beijing to Guangzhou, so in comparison the 10 hour high speed train was a pretty bearable option.  I think it’s purely because we don’t have anything like it (yet) in the UK, but the prospect of going on a train, which looks as sleek and fancy as the high speed trains do, it’s quite an exciting option.  Inside is pretty cool, most of the 18 carriages were taken up with second class seating (that’s where we were), but all the seats are like reclining plane seats so it’s pretty comfortable.  The 1st class carriages have a bit more space and more luxurious seating while business class get sleeping pods – there was one wee kid crashed out in one (we were pretty jealous). Also the train conductors are dressed like glamourous air hostesses – so the whole thing just feels like a giant plane where you can see the scenery instead of the clouds.

When I say we saw the scenery, it took a good few hours for the smog to clear to let us actually see more than 100m from the train windows.  I just presumed that the smog cloud was confined to the areas directly above the cities – but it seems not (which is a little bit alarming), but then I’m not a meteorologist so what do I know! Once the smog did clear it was lovely to be able to see the passing landscape – which even in China changes pretty quickly when you are travelling at 300km/hr. After sitting down for a few hours we began to feel the need to walk around the train to prevent numb bums and boredom setting in. It surprised us all to see that we were the only non-Chinese people on the entire train – and to be honest I think it surprised them to see us, being foreign around here attracts a fair amount of interest (something I’ve got used to pretty quickly).  It was good that there was 11 of us on the train, (and that we were all sitting together) because it meant we got to entertain each other and share our various picnic treats. I managed to get landed mass catering cheese and biscuits (they weren’t even mine). The little boy that said ‘Hello’ to us every time he regularly walked down the carriage was very intrigued (he wasn’t keen to try one though!).  The carriages all had screens that showed the station names, our speed and also the outside temperature throughout our journey. The constantly increasing temperature at every station definitely peaked our interest and resulted in us all jumping out of the carriage onto the platform at every stop, marvelling at how hot it was, taking a group selfie (because naturally that’s what you do) and then jumping back on the train again. By the time we got to Guangzhou at 8pm the temperature was reading about 39^oC!

When we finally arrived at our station Tom and I weren’t entirely convinced we were going to be picked up because we hadn’t heard from our school mentor in over 6 weeks – despite us sending a number of emails (we were getting a bit worried that they had forgotten about us). When we got down to the arrivals section and everyone’s mentors, except ours, were there for the pick-up the panic did step up a notch! I genuinely started thinking of places we could find to camp out in in the station. Thankfully we managed to borrow a phone and call our mentor – it turns out she was there, just in the wrong section!  It’s a good job she did arrive because Guangzhou South train station is so cavernous it’s like an airport (Beijing was pretty similar in the sheer size of the place) – we wouldn’t have had a clue where to start looking for anything or anyone.

So our long day of travelling was finally over by 10pm, after a 40 minute drive from Guangzhou to our new homes in the Nanhai district of Foshan.  Thankfully there is a lift to my flat on the 8^th floor of the building – that would truly have finished me off!  I didn’t have any idea what to expect when it came to my accommodation – I deliberately hadn’t thought about it – so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived (despite the fact that a lot of deep cleaning was required). Our mentor, (her name is Cindy) did offer for someone to come and clean the room for me, but who on earth was going to do that after 10pm on a Saturday night, and goodness only knows what the standard would be like, so I pretty quickly said I’d do it myself – this meant I was quickly handed a rubbishy old brush and pan and bid goodnight….

G x