We've been traveling in haze and fog since Hong Kong and this morning it was denser that normal. Visibility was less than 150 feet! We assembled our group and met our guide, Katherine.
On the way out of the terminal we noted a lot of HAL excursion participants walking back to the ship. It seems that the road to Beijing was blocked by fog and accidents and they had been stopped on the freeway for over an hour after traveling at least an hour towards Beijing. So 6 bus loads of tours were cancelled.
We boarded our shuttle van for our twenty minute ride to the bullet train station at Yujiapu. Katherine purchased our RT tickets. It's worth noting that we had to produce our passport copies to purchase the tickets and we went through two security screenings.
The bullet train was clean and sleek and outfitted like an airliner. The ride was unbelievably smooth and the maximum speed we noted was 268kph or 160mph. It took about 20 minutes to travel between the Yujiapu and Tianjin stations. The Yujiapu station is a modern aluminum domed affair that's quite new and the Tianjin Station is around 100 years old on the outside but thoroughly modern on the inside.
Once we arrived at the Tianjin train station, Katherine broke the group up into three groups and put each group into a taxi, paid the driver, and told him where to drop us off. It actually worked and we all ended up at a spot near the Grand Canal. But would it work as smoothly on the return trip? The walk along the Grand Canal was pleasant with lots of fishermen and other walkers. Since this is not a typical Western tourist location, it was interesting to have Chinese people taking pictures of us. I was able to get one picture of a Chinese youngster who received one of my giveaway stickers. Of course his mother wanted a picture of me with the child.
In the downtown area we found a traditional Chinese shopping area that was very colorful. Later on we found an indoor food market with an amazing variety of traditional food items. Katherine then found 3 cabs, paid each driver, and told each to drop us off at the same location. We reached a bridge over the river, and the driver said to get out of the cab. So we did, and we had no clue where were at as we hadn't left the train station on foot so we didn't know what the train station looked like. I even showed a picture of a bullet train to a local who didn't speak English but he didn't comprehend the question. About that time our guide appeared and all was good. It seems that all three drivers who received the same instructions dropped each of the three groups off at a different location!
We went through only one security scan at the Tianjin bullet train station and made our way to the platform. This station is huge, easily as large or larger than SeaTac airport. Our train from Beijing was about two minutes late but once on board it whisked us to our stop at Yujiapu in 20 minutes where we met our shuttle bus driver for a quick ride to a local restaurant for a yummy late multi-course local cuisine lunch at 2:30pm ish. And then all too soon we were dropped off at the terminal just before 4 and onboard at the 4pm onboard time where we surrendered our copy of our passport to HAL staff.
An important thing to remember when visiting Chinese ports is that the onboard time seems to be at least 2 hours before the departure time listed in the itinerary documents. So one must factor that into one's travel plans.
We wanted to watch the sail away so we positioned ourselves in the Crow's Nest. As the 6pm projected departure time approached, the Captain came on the PA system and said that a passenger required medical care that the ship couldn't provide so they had to be cleared to leave the ship and the ship re-cleared to depart. We eventually departed around 7pm in a total haze with a golden globe dropping ever lower in the sky. We adjourned to Phillip's presentation on Manga which was really good. The night's movie was a Chinese film with English subtitles titled 'Coming Home'. It was a very moving and sad account about a Chinese family the father of which was politically imprisoned but eventually makes it home to his now senile wife who doesn't remember him.
The evening's entertainment was Funny Bones, a vaudeville type comedy duo. And then all too soon, it was time to lose an hour with our clocks being set forward overnight by an hour to Tokyo time.
Tomorrow is a sea day as we sail to Nagasaki. We're taking a walking tour there. Stay tuned.
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