Beijing Friday 10/28

Friday 10-28
　
Friday started off early with Mama feeling sick for several hours. I think the pollution finally got the best of me. Leaving the US I had a cough left over from a cold and here it is 10 days later still. No better no worse. E is also coughing quite a bit on certain days. Once the rain from Sunday passed there were beautiful skies for a day or so but then the smog returned. So Friday we luckily didn’t have anything planned except for packing. Plenty of time for extra resting with the late check out we requested for 2pm.
　
Angela picked us up at 4:30pm for the trip to the train station. Our train, Z65, was scheduled to leave at 8pm but with the traffic in Beijing we didn’t want to chance it. The arrived in plenty of time. The train station looked like an airport terminal with the crowds and gates. The exception would be in an airport there are many people who speak English as well as Chinese. Not so at the train station. We were going to hire a “red hat” who handles your luggage and gets you on your train car 30 minutes before official boarding. Instead since it was 6pm and we had two hours to departure we decided to use the pay lounge waiting areas and Angela made arrangements for the lounge personal to take us to our gate 50 minutes before boarding time. While out looking for food I did see the regular waiting area and it was much less nice. We had padded chairs, tables, TV, and private squatty bathrooms for the pay lounge area. At 7:10 he came to escort us to the stairs leading down to gate 3 loading. That’s right stairs. With 4 backpacks and 4 large suitcases. I’m glad we had been warned to pack light our we would have had more. Now at this time we are truly alone. No one speaks English. At the base of the stairs there was our train. Angela had already shown me how to read our tickets so we found our car and room no problem. Promptly at 8pm we were on our way. ADVICE Although you can fit 4 suitcases under the beds they cannot be fat suitcases like we pack. Next time we won’t use the outside pockets and they would then fit under the beds. There is also a loft for 2 suitcases above. The boys were excited to see a TV and the end of each bed. Chinese only, no subtitles. Once we were on the move we decided quickly to go to bed. And so ended Friday.