Days 65-67

You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away.
-Cobb, "Inception"

I am in Qujing. I've come to attend the wedding of my friends Jessie (an American filmmaker working in Beijing) and Maggie (a Chinese teacher from Yunnan Province). Since I last had the opportunity to write in my blog, I finished my internship. My last day of work was this Tuesday the 2nd. To reflect on the numerous benefits and knowledge I garnered from my work there, I feel as though I now have a multiplied understanding of the international trading economy and the processes used by corporations to source production in China. From this experience and learning, I have the potential to go into business in the field (like I've mentioned that I am) and certainly a better understanding (for my personal benefit) of this economy.

On Wednesday morning, I took the train from Tsim Sha Tsui to Lo Wu, Shenzhen. From there, I took the provincial train to Guangzhou, and from there, I took another train to Kunming. The train to Kunming took 26 hours and was a hard sleeper. Here's a visual of my journey. I actually sufferd less on that trip than on the plane to Hong Kong, because at least in a hard sleeper you can walk around a bit, talk to people, eat, play cards, and sleep comfortably. In a plane, no such thing. On the way back, however, the only available spaces on the train were hard seats. On the train to Kunming, I met someone (case in point of Mainlanders being more friendly than HK people) who told me she might be able to help me change my seat; she gave me the contact information of a friend of hers who works in 'the industry.' Her business is clothes, and she travels twice a month from Kunming to East China. For perspective, that's two days of the week spent on a train. It's a lot of time to travel. The reason for the train travel, of course, is because of how cheap it is; the sleeper ticket cost 341 RMB. Do you know how expensive train travel is in the US? It costs more than a plane! (Ticket. Plane not included with purchase.)

Now I'm attending the wedding. It's very good to see my friends; besides them, though, I don't know anyone here, but I've met a lot of people. Many of their friends are expats [the preferred term for first-world immigrants] that live in Beijing, Shanghai, or other large cities in the mainland. Going out to 'the provinces,' as they say, is fun for travel, but not good for living. It's their opinion, though, not mine. Actually, this is my first time getting out of the cities and going into the rural areas, the roads less travelled. So far, it's been a great time.

I'm leaving Qujing tomorrow at 4 for Kunming, and getting on the 6pm train back to Guangzhou (then transfer to HK). Should get there by Sunday night. I have a little downtime on Monday and Tuesday before I have to go, so I can hang out and enjoy the city a little more.

For now, I have to go; I was supposed to be somewhere 5 minutes ago.

One more thing -- The hotel I'm staying in, in Qujing, cost $20 a night, the same price I pay for a ~100sqft room in TST with a bed, table, and washroom. here's a picture.