Day 4, March 09, 2017
Before I start my entry on today's activities, I would like to do a commercial. Sky Roam and Skype. Don't travel abroad without it. Sky Roam is like carrying “WiFi” in your pocket. The information highway is always available. Skype gives you the ability to make worldwide calls using the internet. It is great.
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| Our hotel in Beijing |
China is a developing country. It has under gone an incredible transition in the last 30 years. Capitalism has met Socialism head on and I believe that Capitalism has gained the upper hand. One area that is very evident is the HSR or High Speed Rail. China has developed the fastest, longest, and most used rail service in the world. We traveled from Beijing to Wuhan, a distance of 800 miles in 5 and ½ hours at speeds of 305 k/ph.(186 mph). 1.44 billion people used the rails last year. The high-speed service was introduced in 2007 and took off after that. There have been a few problems along the way, though. The Railway Minister was removed in 2011 for taking bribes. $152,000,000. They worked through these concerns and continued their development. The popularity of the HSR did have a negative impact on the regional aircraft carriers. They had to slash their prices to compete with the trains. A little competition never hurt.
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| Bullet train |
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| Waiting to board the train |
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| Hankins eating a McDonald's sandwich in the train station |
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| Speed of the train 301 km/h (186 mph) |
Anyway, we had a good trip. Left on schedule and arrived on schedule. Once again, Cinerama took care of business. We have a guide that will stay with us until we get on the airplane in Saigon and head home.
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| Hankins with Peking Duck |
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| Unwinding in the Irish Pub, in the Holiday Inn, in Wuhan, China |
We had dinner at a Tibetan Restaurant. Very good, slightly different from the Chinese cuisine we have been eating.
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| Tibet restaurant in Wuhan. We ate dinner here. |
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| Dinner in Wuhan |
Tonight we are staying at a high rise Holiday Inn. Our room is on the 12th floor, with a good view of the city. Did I mention that Wuhan has a population of 10,000.000 people? It is known as the Education City. It has 80 universities here.
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| Our hotel room in Wuhan |
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| View from hotel room |
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| View from hotel room |
Tomorrow we will visit a smaller city (6,000,000 people) and then board our river cruise boat for a cruise down the Yangtze River. More about that in the next report.
Today was Linda and my 43rd anniversary and 37th for Jerry and Mary Ann.
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