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| Photo by S370/CC BY-SA 3.0 |
We leave the station slowly and pass under the spaghetti of roads just outside
Speed picks up slightly and the view changes to worn out fields of weeds
Up another gear and warehouses, more spaghetti, quaint houses, a freeway
This is a green, smoke-free train according to the hostess over the speaker
Another gear, beside an elevated freeway
Construction sites, across rivers, yellow flowers in worn-out and unkempt fields
A woman with a tray of who-knows-what. No time to stop and sell
Purple uniforms, 184km/h, 15 degrees
Market gardens amongst rubble, an excavator and construction
Some drinks and snacks, just so, pass faster than the train seems to move
Over another market garden, a creek, a slow train
Another gear and like nothing we reach 300 km/h
1:37pm, 23 degrees inside
Constant rumbling, the slight drone of engines
Barely notice the pace until a sound barrier careens past
With subliminal flashes of market gardens in the gaps
We're off and Shanghai dissipates as if into the perpetual grey sky
Or it would if it ever ended
Hangzhou to Shanghai, 8:18pm
Ticket office over there. No - construction.
Ask police. Downstairs.
Outside, 200m, walk the stairs to the ticket office
No signs for outsiders
Line-up behind the yellow line while nobody else does
¥75 for both but too cheap. First class?
Window 21 is the reply. Back in line, but longer
First class. All done.
Out of the ticket office and straight past where the cops told us to go downstairs
So near and yet so far
Welcome at the entry, passports waved off. But no gate number
Search for the journey number, not too difficult
Seat won't stay up - travelling backwards at speed. Seems to stop more often
Other classes more seats, good to have room to move
But hoiking, hoiking everywhere. A national past-time? The smog?
Hangzhou is quiet in parts. (Arm nearly ripped off by passing luggage!)
People dancing on the deck, old men singing and playing musical instruments
The crowd joins in. Chestnuts, squirrels (so friendly!), the West Lake (so happy!)
Then through the spaghetti and we're back
But then home to buses and slow trains, an airport where the traffic holds up the bus
On the tarmac trying to get to the other terminal. Not so in China
Rich country on the cheap. Poor country shows the way.