2002.08.27

Writing from the Shanghai-Nanjing train.  We paid 380yuan (app. 50 USD) for both our return tickets.  Seems reasonable for a 3 hr. train ride.  The way we look at the whole “gaijin” (laowei?) markup is that as long as we can afford it, and it seems like good value compared with rates back home, it isn’t a bad deal.  Many foreigners travel in absolute disdain of the hiked rates they face.  A tariff for being such fat cats, I think, is reasonable.

We stayed last night at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.  It was far from posh, but very comfortable with 2 single beds, clean sheets, air conditioning and a shower.  (2 days later…) Though I declined the shower this morn after inhaling the toxicity of the steam coming off Rod’s shower.  The water is brownish and smells of swamp and metal.  Perhaps I’m just paranoid after reading that thousands of tonnes of metallic and industrial waste are dumped into the city water source (Huangpu River) daily.

For breakfast, we ate a dinner set of pork cutlet, bok choy, corn and other veggies, rice and soup.  Absolutely enormous for two imports from Japan.

Everywhere the streets are filled with bicycles.  Traffic is tough to negotiate.

poem from Nanjing, China