The Xiamen train station is new and huge and looks out at a very large mountain park I wanted but did not make it to.
There are perhaps 200 people on this (one of two) waiting floors and as far as I can tell one foreigner.
I am feeling a bit guilty. Was so tired of my hotel in Xiamen. The dirty carpet, the noises and the smells. Couldn’t wait to leave. They on the other hand knowing I had complained about their noisy (broken pressure tank) water system, waived all my laundry charges. Then gave me a bag of four boxes of four differing flavored pineapple cakes. And four of them took me and my luggage to the taxi and stood by in a row as I departed all the time thanking me for staying in their hotel. Asia.
A huge mob gets on the train with plenty of line cutting, etc.
The first class car (17 dollars) soon fills up and we are on our way.
They are a pretty well behaved crowd. Eating various things. A little cart comes down the aisle and sells food and drinks.
Rolled out of the city at 70 MPH, then cruised around 120 MPH. Don’t quote me on this but I think that the fast trains in Taiwan hit maybe 175 MPH and maybe close to 200 in Japan. But we are moving!
I thought that this was interesting. Children fares by height.
This is an eroded costal topography with hills and silted valleys. The hills are green with trees. In the valleys there are always buildings. A countryside landscape but with more buildings than one would expect. All the buildings are rectangular and look self-designed. Agriculture and canals/streams wind through the settlements.
The young fellow beside me is a student at the Fuzhou University. Studying Urban Design. He helps me read on my ticket the correct station. They have four, which I did not expect.
We make a few stops and after every stop a person comes down the aisle with a long handled dustpan and a broom and tidies up. Every station is huge, new, and mostly empty. There are many of these trains passing and in the stations.
Fuzhou looks like another unexpectedly big city. With traffic and other problems. I will have a look around and put up some pictures later.
