The Train ride to Qingdao - Marc goes Traveling

	The Train ride to Qingdao
	2007-10-17 We took the train to Qingdao because it's both cheap and fast. In addition to Zoltan and myself, we brought our friend Emma along for the ride for translation help, and she's always game for being treated to free food in return. Alex was supposed to come along too, but at the last moment caught the plague or the black death or something and stayed home in Beijing instead.

[Click on any photo for a larger view]

This was my first trip to Beijing Station, and it's pretty much a regular train station.
Hey that's our train! I think.
The train was packed, and there are always people trying to improve the quality of their seating or otherwise score a free ride.		The ride shows a lot of the Chinese countryside, all seemingly covered in a drab gray.

	That's a serious company name!
		There's always construction going on in this country.
And farming.
		This is a 90 second video of what you see on the train. Not terribly exciting, but pretty typical of the Chinese countryside.
We stopped at a few stations along the way. Lots of people going to Qingdao it seems. It is one of the bigger and more important cities in Shandong province.