July 4, In the Souzhou High­speed Rail Station

Souzhou Gautier Station

After Souzhou's general drabness, this place has the style and glitz of Shanghai. It is a 30-minute, 50 rmb cab ride away; I’m  glad I left early. Didn't even realize there was a separate station. It is so new it still smells like wet plaster and paint. Every time I walk by the ladies', someone is mopping it-- a polished stone floor death trap. But no one seems to fall, or crash, or things like that here. On the the way to the station, there were miles and miles of concrete slab apartment buildings and construction sites; omnipresent raised highway pylons not yet surfaced;  cars, trucks, wheelbarrows and bike-carts loaded with watermelons; an interesting device for manually lifting big slabs of rock to form curbs and chips of stone where they were chiseled to fit. And out of nowhere, this ultramodern station rises. As ever, I am the only roundeye in the place. But also as ever, everyone is helpful and friendly.I while away the time until the train's departure checking out the snacks: vacuum packed chicken feet; one thousand year old eggs with transparent black whites and opaque black yolks (more edible than they look); a huge variety of interestingly colored cookies-- but it is hard to tell even whether they are sweet or savory or some strange version of both simultaneously; unidentifiable (to me) cans and bottles of drinks; and nuts and dried fruits and seeds.

taken from window, @ 200+mph!

Within an hour, I start seeing some hills. Are they real, or made? Real, I think. All along the tracks are the patchwork of small fields-- rice, veg (structures covered with cucumber vines, dotted with yellow flowers), green things in rows, small trees. Many mass plantings of landscape trees. Yesterday, at 40 degrees, they were planting big bagged trees! But I expect someone will dutifully water them. Still, just beyond the patchwork of garden, are crouching mass housing. Once in awhile, there is a stretch where a few old houses, like monopoly houses, 2 together to form a 12x24 two room house, appears with cultivation beginning immediately at the front door. But then it's over and back to big housing. 

We stop at major cities I have never heard of-- Chifu, Ji'an--that have millions of residents. I don't think towns the population of Charlottesville exist here. We hit Beijing exurbs 20 minutes before arrival, and the train is going 310 kph—200 mph.

It takes a different kind of person (than me) to fit into this and not feel drowned. A strong sense of self and individuality but also a strong sense of being a part of a larger organism. I see this—the individuality does not have to be loudly, overtly expressed but it is certainly there. And certainly the feeling of shared purpose is palpable. Many are far from prosperous, but they project a sense of creating a future.
A nice man sitting next to me advised me about the metro, which stop to get off, and gave me his card in case I ran into trouble. I turned out I would have walked a long, long way had I chosen the Metro station he suggested, but since it was 38 degrees, I decided to spring for a taxi. This taxi driver was the only really cranky person I ran into in China, and he dropped me off kind of near the hotel, but I couldn't get there because of fences and so on. The luggage cart paid its way as I wandered around trying to penetrate the maze to get to a place that I wasn't sure was right anyway! But of course it all worked out in the end and my cool, quiet room room was waiting with an interesting assortment of hotel amenities including disposable slippers and a sandalwood comb.