Look Sir, Droids!

This past weekend we embarked on a speedy trip from Baoding to Beijing and back again. The five members of team Baoding ventured out to the big city to see our fellow IECS team members from Langfang and Tianjin. The trip blew by as we left Friday morning and returned Satuday night.

When traveling in China there is never a dull moment. Although Beijing is relatively close to Baoding, getting there is still something of an ordeal. My favorite form of travel is by train. I was introduced to this vehicular luxury when traveling across Europe this past summer with my brother. Compared with the hassle of driving a car or being jammed in a plane seat while stuck on a runway for two hours, anything starts to look good. However, riding in a European railcar is truly an exercise in relaxation. All one has to do is catch the train and everything else is taken care of. You can order food (nothing like plane food mind you) get up and walk around the spacious aisles, or doze in your comfy chair while watching the beautiful scenery sail by...

With these conjured images of train euphoria in my mind, I looked forward to our quick train to Beijing. To be fair I did expect it might be a bit different, perhaps not as nice, maybe a little more crowded, my seat a bit smaller, etc. Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated the power of 1.3 billion Chinese on a National holiday. The experience more resembled the trucks of chickens that I used to see driving down the highway back in Virginia. The chickens were so stuffed in there little pens that you could tell neither beak from claw, a flying feather fiasco as they barreled down the highway at 80 miles an hour. So team Baoding traveled to Beijing in a car so packed with people that it seemed to take most of the voyage to literally shove our way to our seats where we had to give a couple of freeloaders the boot. In truth it wasn't so bad once we were seated and on the bright side it was a speedy way to travel.

We stepped off the train to a beautiful clear day in Beijing that made us quickly forget the hassles of the commute. We spent the afternoon shopping at various locations and walking around the city a bit with IECS Director Newt, his wife Claire, and staff member Tony. Towards the latter part of the afternoon Jon and I ventured off on our own to see the worlds largest Apple store. We discovered it in a metropolitan jungle of high-end stores in Beijing's commercial district, the enormous apple shining like a one of those electric bug zappers that lures over-curious insects to their swift demise. We felt right at home in the midst of all the fantastic merchandise and by an extreme test of will were able to escape with only a few small purchases.

Saturday was spent with all of the IECS folks together in China for the first time and was an awesome time of fun and fellowship. Our team left for home, sad to say goodbye to Newt and Claire heading back to the States but with hearts full of encouragement from our friends.