Bullet Train to Beijing:Day 3

Only marginally faster than the Mag Lev, we hear that the train can go faster but the speed has been restricted for safety reasons.  First class is very expensive, so for the the only time this trip we opt for second class.  It will get there at the same time!  It is not much better than a plane seat... and then there are the toilets...

  No sign of a buffet car, so we were woefully under supplied for a 5 hour train trip.  Rick got through the first hour or so on the coffee, which he said was excellent.

The scenery was mostly industial, rolling from the outskirts of Shanghai through the other major cities of Nanjing and Ji nan and Tianjin. 

In more rural areas there is maize laid out to dry, stacked on roofs or verandahs and roads.  Where it is still being harvested the work is done by hand, cut off the cob, bend the stalk to show where you have been.  Others follow behind slashing the stalks off and piling them together in teepee shapes.  
Each plot of land is tiny, so the tractors , when there are any, are also small. 

Finally we arrive at Bejing South Station.  Not one I know and not near to our Hotel, so we catch a "taxi".  He looked at the address, yes, yes 280RMB.  We got him down to 180 and relaxed into the back of the car.  There is no meter. He stops on the edge of the expressway, just clear of the station... no where for us to go to if we did decide to get out and try for a proper taxi!  He gets his phone out and hands it to me.  What is going on? He is asking a friend to translate.  I repeat the name of the hotel, Tian Rui,.. so small he has not heard of it, the street Baishu Hutong,  also small. I tell him we need to get to Wanfujing... now he is happy.  I hand the phone back to the driver and we are off.
Wanfujing, when we reach it, is packed.  I recognise  St Josephs Church and thank the driver for getting us this close.   He is pleased not to have to venture any deeper into the holiday crowds and we are pleased to have bags that go on our backs as we skip up the church steps and down the other side.
I am happy to be back somewhere that I have been before, to know where I am in this sea of traffic/ pedestrians/ bikes and shops. The building on the corner is new, but the church is the same, the fences, gardens and tangles of cable on the powerpoles are just as I remember them.  How had I forgotten  the communal toilet block?  the outdoor gym? the outdoor 'restaurant'? the tiny fruit shop children helping behind the counter because they speak english?
  I find the hotel from memory... there is no visible signage in english.
The first room we are given has a toilet cistern that never turns off and a broken window catch. Memory fails me again making the room seem smaller and drabber.  I return to reception to sort this out and we are moved.  It is now smaller, drabber and darker as we are on the north of the building, but it will do.