As I looked out of the train car at the familiar urban landscape, Karen Carpenter’s voice crooned softly over the train’s loudspeakers–and I smiled to myself–because I knew I was back "home" in Xining.  Of all the places this train had chugged through in the past 34 hours, the landscape in Qinghai and Gansu province were the most impressive to me.  The calico pattern of beige dirt and green foliage on the tall mountains; the tidy farms tucked onto terraced fields; the blue-blue sky untainted by the east’s pollution; the wide open people-free spaces; all of these things made me appreciate where we live a little more than I had before.

Granted, I slept through a good portion of eastern China.  It was rainy, too, which makes everything look a bit drab.  But during the week I spent in Beijing and Shanghai, I really started to miss the haze-free vistas of Xining.  Those metropolitan places are nice to visit (especially for the Starbucks, Papa Johns pizza, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds, etc.) but as the saying goes, I wouldn’t want to LIVE there.

Since I didn’t take any pictures during this trip, I’ve borrowed a few from the Internet.  Here are a few observations from my travels:

Observation 1:  The Great Wall is really impressive and pictures can’t begin to give you scope for just how "great" it is.  We saw only a small portion of it.  We climbed an even smaller portion, but let me tell you it’s breathtaking.   I know a tremendous number of poor peasants died constructing it and that’s not something we should be too happy about, but it’s hard not to be impressed visually with this structure.  It was really cool how Anna and Sarah marched up the thing, too.  We told them we would be buy them T-shirts if they could walk up to the first rampart.  They made it to about the third one (most of the way up the mountain!)  I only stopped them because I feared Christa and I would have to carry them down (which we did most of the way.)  And most of the steps were half their height!  These little girls were handling it much better than a lot of the adults we saw. It probably helps that we live at 7,000 feet.  I was pretty proud…

Observation 2:  When cruising around Beijing and Shanghai it pays NOT to talk to anyone who approaches you.  Ignore and triumph is the motto.  Josh and I learned this lesson the hard way.  In Beijing, everyone and their sister is promoting the arts in some way.  Everyone is a student, everyone is an artist, everyone has a calligraphy display at the local gallery that they would love for you to see.  If this is not the case, then they want to be your tour guide or taxi service.  In Shanghai, everyone wants to sell you DVDs, watches, bags, drinks, a massage (scary), women (run!) and even hashish (run very fast!)  If you even say ‘hello’ to someone who says hello to you, you can expect to spend the next 10-15 minutes trying to get rid of them.  They will follow you down the street and attach themselves to your side like barnacles to a sunken ship.  It’s best just to pretend like you don’t hear them when they say, "Hello, sir.  Please take a look.  DVDs?  Watch?  You like beer?"  Just stare straight ahead and keep walking.  It’s your only hope for survival.

Observation 3:  Trains are not a bad way to travel in China.  They are inexpensive and fairly comfortable (especially the soft sleepers).  The hard part is buying the tickets!  What a nightmare.  It helps if you speak some Chinese…and if you can read Chinese characters.  Otherwise it’s a bit of crap shoot.  We were able to buy our tickets to and from Shanghai (and for me on to Xining), but it was by no means an easy or relaxing process.  The bad part about trains is that you might run into some serious snore-mongers (which we did on the way to Shanghai…) but the good part is that you might run into a nice old Chinese couple who smile a lot and remind you of your grandparents (which I did on the way to Xining.) 

In true junior high fashion, the biggest kick I got out of the train was using the "squatty potty".  This squatty was unique because basically it was just a hole in the floor of the bathroom.  When you did your business you had the pleasure of knowing you were doing number 1 or 2 directly onto the train tracks below.  I know it’s juvenile, but I found this quite exhilarating.  They locked the bathroom doors whenever they stopped at a station.  I guess they wanted to keep the tracks clean at the stations.

Observation #4: Tall buildings are cool.  Josh and I hit the 4th tallest building in the world during our visit to Shanghai.  It’s called the Jin Mao building (something like that).  The observation deck is on the 88th floor.  I realized as we took the elevator up to the 88th floor, that I had never been in a building this tall before.  Even though the morning was overcast, we still had a great view of Shanghai.  The way the building was designed, from the 88th floor you could look down into the center of the building and see 30-some floors below which was occupied by a Hyatt hotel.  After looking down into the hotel, I turned around and to my utter and complete amazement saw something I never expected or could have possibly predicted…

Right there at the top of this building in Shanghai was a branch of The Coffee Beanery! 

I used to work at this coffee shop franchise in Lexington, Kentucky.  This franchise is quite popular in the eastern U.S., but many people have never heard of it.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Our whole time in Beijing and Shanghai I never saw another Coffee Beanery, but there was this one.  I went ahead and ordered one of my favorite drinks (Cafe Caramel) for old times sake, but they made it a little different from the way we made them in Kentucky.  Pretty small world, after all.

Observation #5: One-hour river boat tours are optimal.  One of the things Josh and I wanted to do was go on a river boat tour in Shanghai.  We originally thought we would do a 3-hour tour (insert Gilligan theme here) but opted for the 1 hour option instead.  We were glad we did.  It was a great experience, but when you are touring a river lined by sky-rises there are only so many cranes you can see before it gets a bit boring.  Some of the smaller boats on the river were interesting, but mostly the river was full of large barges and boats used for shipping large containers.  I guess we’re spoiled living in Seattle.  We can see this type of stuff every time we go downtown.

Observation #6: Traveling with a good friend makes all the difference in the world.  This is probably a no-brainer, but I think it’s important to say.  Seeing and experiencing new things is great, but if the experience is not shared (preferably with someone you value) it’s hard to validate it.  Even a painful experience (like buying train tickets in Beijing) becomes an enjoyable experience when you are able to look back and laugh at the situation with your friend who was there.  I think this is true whether your are sight-seeing or just living in community with others.

I guess those are a few of the highlights from my trip.  Other things might come up as I am able to process more of it.  For now, it’s just good to be home resting and reminiscing.