Sleepless in a Soft Seat

What do you do with a full week off before you travel on the biggest journey of your life? Travel, of course. In order to break in our walking shoes and navigational skills, Peter, Andy, and I went east to visit some friends and check out some of the other cities with teachers working in the harvest fields. Shaoxing was our first stop. Our overnight train from Sunday night to Monday morning was about 9 hours. We had soft seats to sit on and attempt some sort of sleep for the train ride. A few problems exist when sitting on a soft seat. They never shut the lights off in the train cabin. The leg room is made for Chinese legs. 6 people face each other with the leg space just mentioned. The back angle is a perfect 90 degrees taking away any lower lumbar support. I was smashed up against the window where the heater was also located and I had Peter's body heat right next to me. I was dressed for cold winter weather, not a sauna. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep total. Time passed by so slowly. I was sleepless in a soft seat.

Thankfully, things like train rides are only temporary. I was greeted with smiles and hugs by Shaoxing friends. We checked out stuff like a market, a pagoda (pictured), Shaoxing's famous winery (some samples too), and then we relaxed for the second part of the day. The whole crew in Shaoxing got together for supper and we gave thanks for the blessings of food and fellowship. Part of our reason for coming so far from "home" was to see a classmate visiting China over his Christmas break in the States. He and his girlfriend joined our triumvirate and the next day we spent in Hangzhou.


Before we could get out of Shaoxing, I first had to get out of the bathroom. The door I closed behind me was a little broken when I went in and a lot broken when I tried to get out. The bolt had disconnected from the handle and was just resting in the door frame as it should when it locks. But when I turned the handle or unlocked it, the bolt didn't move from between the handle and the door frame. It was almost a half hour or so until just the right connection from both sides of the handle set the bolt back in place and we turned the handle to get me safely out. Phew! We were contemplating breaking the door, climbing out windows, and breaking a fake window on the door just to free me.


Our group of 5 took a morning bus to Hangzhou and met up with the shepherd there to drop our stuff and get some info on the city. We ate lunch together and explored the area around West Lake. It is one of the most famous things to see in China. Hangzhou is a beautiful city and the park surrounding West Lake is nice and green. I surmise that things are more pleasant in the spring and summer months. One of the shopping streets we went down had a street show with various acts: a boy spinning some bowls around everywhere, a girl with a whip, and a guy who caught metal balls in a cup on his head after throwing them into the air. The girl used the whip to cut a cigarette in half while it was in a guy's mouth and other cool stuff. Our time in Hangzhou was pretty limited, but we enjoyed the upscale and green city. It was a nice change from Wuhan. 5 became 3 again and we took the bullet train to Shanghai that night, reaching speeds of almost 190 mph.

We just explored the downtown area of Shanghai the next day. The famous Bund along the river gave us good photo opportunities. Their architecture is stark contrast from the modern buildings across the river. The big thing we did that day was to go up to the 100th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center. (It's the tall one with the open square at the top.) I stood 1,555 feet off the ground. It is the tallest observation deck in the world. We left the Bund area until the lights came on and took some more pictures before catching our return train home. Luckily no soft seats for the return trip.