I am typing this story on a small wireless keyboard connected to my iPhone screen by Bluetooth. For Internet - I am using the T-mobile Cellular network. It allows me to send text - email - etc. But pictures and videos are very slow.
We just boarded a high speed train in Beijing and are going 307 KPH! It will take us about 4 hours to get there. JP - Wanda - and Lulu are in the row behind me. I am having a mini-coke and listening to CNN on Slingbox over the iPhone. I am amazed that I can do that while typing. With the Slingbox - I am listening to my television from home. This is the way we get unfiltered news over here.
Tonight - we will stay at the Holiday Inn in Xian. It is the closest big city to the Terra-cotta Warriors. Tomorrow we will view the site. If you do not know what the Terracota Warriors are - they are a recent wonder of the world. They have unearthed thousands of statues of an ancient army. Each warrior is different - face - body - armor - etc. It is about 800 miles west of Beijing.
While on the train - Lulu has just been invited to speak in Vietnam. We will be going to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) from Nov 6 to 8. When Lulu gets invited to speak in another country or province - Fulbright covers her travel. The inviting school covers her lodging. We plan to visit Vietnam - Japan - Korea - Nanjing. There is a distant chance we could also go to Australia.
As we zip along faster than we ever have gone on the ground - it is very cloudy - foggy - gray - hazy - for the middle of the day. We go flying by lots of high rise condos. When I say condos - I really mean the type of building. Really - all buildings are owned by the government. You pay rent. It is about 60 degrees outside. Every seat on the train is full.The train ride is $75 each way.
Yesterday - we all went to The Forbidden City. It is a historic walled city downtown in the middle of Beijing. It dates back 400 years to the Ming Dynasty. It is surrounded by a moat. It reminds me of the Palace in Versailles in France where the king and his court lived. This palace has 900 buildings. Many are open to tourists - many others are still used. There were big crowds. You must by tickets online the day before. The tickets cost about $7.
After The Forbidden City - we went to the Pearl Market. There - Wanda and Lulu enjoyed making deals and buying gifts.
Tuesday - we went to the Silk Market where Lulu and I were measured for custom pants. It will be interesting to see what we get.
The countryside we are zooming thru is very pretty - but foggy. It could be anywhere in England - except say for the condos that fly back. It is more and more rural now. To the north of us are the mountains - where The Great Wall is.
Our apartment is doing fine. It is less than 800 sq ft - but we have two private bedrooms. Our guests have all been happy with it. It is on the 10th floor - we have 2 working elevators - and we come and go easily. The building is keyed and gated - You must open a gate and a remote glass door - before you get to the elevators. We have plenty of heat and hot water.
I am still going out in shirt sleeves. Yesterday - it was 70s - and I was the only guy with shorts and shirt sleeves - they are already ready for winter.
Tuesday JP and Wanda went to the Great Wall. They went to a place different than we went to the wall. They said it was sunny and less crowded - but there were few touristy shops there.
It has just gotten darker from fog or smog. I am guessing we have a visibility of ¼ mile. Every now and then we see highways - but not lots of cars or trucks.
My internet has been throttle back to about ¼ Mbps. In comparison - back home in Tallahassee- we pay for 80 Mbps - but get about 120 Mbps. It is so hard to send pictures and videos with this limited bandwidth. I do not know why I had so much more the first two months. I have called T-mobile and they said they are not throttling me back. They blame China. We were watching four hour FSU football games on the internet. I would post stories with 20 high resolution pictures. Not any more.
Son - Keith - has his family on a vacation in Croatia. He made a FaceTime call to me - we were out shopping. We had a clear video conversation. So it makes no sense. It feels like they are toying with me. When in China- you play by their rules.
To my camper friends - we have been here two months and have only seen maybe 2 or 3 campers.
When I get a chance I will send a picture of a scooter apron. People use their electric scooters as primary transportation. They take them every day to work and shopping. When temperatures dropped below 50 degrees - they started using scooter aprons. It is a heavy quilt - it goes over the handlebars to cover your hands - then down in front of your legs. The strap goes over the head. It is pretty seeing women going to work - well dressed - on their scooter - with skirts - and the apron protecting them from the cold.
The train is much quieter than an airplane - and smoother than the trains in America and Europe. People are either sleeping or looking at their cellphones. There are outlets for 120 volt or 220 volt appliances. All at 308 KPH. These are all electric trains.
We will get to Xian after 6PM. It will already be dark. We will look around town a little bit tonight - tomorrow we will go to the site of the discovery of the TerraCotta Warriors.
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