The Train

"A train! A train! A train! A train! Would you could you on a train?"

from Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess

We've pretty much been airplane snobs since we arrived in Asia. Trains are plentiful, but we haven't taken them... until two weeks ago when we tagged along with Mr. Johnson on a trip to his factory in Qingzhou, a rural city 90 minutes away by fast train.

We left home a little before 7 a.m. the seven of us armed with granola bars, goldfish crackers, novels and Nintendo. It looked like we were going for on a long trip, but in reality it was just a day trip to a city not far from home. We found our soft seats (actual name for the the first class cars), adjusted our window shades and air conditioning vents and listened with amusement as the automated voice described each stop, first in Chinese and then in English, in elegant detail.

Qingdao is a Chinese paradise. We've been told this before and when we catch glimpses of other Chinese cities we understand why. We're coastal, the air is often blue, the pollution is less evident, we have mountains, and lots of greenery.

As we left the coast (the train station is near the shipping harbor) we entered agrarian areas and watched as manual laborers stooped over their vegetable crops and tended the corn, planted with a simple two row planter that was pulled by human power. Husband and wife teams worked together, slogging out a living from the tired soil. We passed covered veg and fruit huts... the places that provide our seasonal produce ... set up like green houses amidst the fields, and nothing, no space, goes to waste. A swatch a yard wide between green houses is enough for a couple of rows of field corn. It's 2009, but looking out our windows as we sped by @ 250 km/hour it was hard to tell.