Not in Shanghai Anymore

We’ve quickly realized that Beijing is not Shanghai.  So far, we’ve spotted very few western signs in this capital city.  Shanghai had many English signs and more western faces on the streets.  We haven’t see much of that so far. Our hotel is located in the Haidian district of northwest Beijing.  There are several universities in the vicinity—Beijing University, Tsinghua University and Beijing Institute of Technology.  Our bus trip from the Beijing Railway station took us past Tiananmen Square were some of us snapped photos of the Gate to the Forbidden City. 

All Aboard to Beijing

We trained from Shanghai to Beijing overnight Tuesday.  We departed from the Shanghai Railway station about 7:45pm and rode all night, arriving in a rainy, moist and humid Beijing right on time at 7:15am.  The twelve of us shared three four-bunk berths on the Beijing bound train, which rocked many of us to sleep Tuesday night.  To some extent, it was like sharing three neighboring dorm rooms.

Arrival at rainy Beijing's Railway Station early Wednesday morning

Christine and Maria in one of the train berths

No Gambling in China

While we were in Zhujiajiao, we learned from our tour guide, Ivan, that it is illegal to gamble in China. But he said that sometimes people cheat the system by putting things like pieces of paper on the table to use as collateral when they play Mahjong or cards at local tea houses—like the one shown below. I didn’t see any gambling going on here, though. 

e-Waste Update: Day 2

Ted Land reports from Taizhou, China. 

Walk through Zhujiajiao

A picture is worth a 1,000 words

A man combing the shoreline for fish. After a few tries, he caught the first fish, which is in the green net hanging from his mouth, to enthusiastic tourist applause