or how we did not get to Tianjin.
Today the whole group decided to go Tianjin, the 6th largest city in China, about 30min east from Beijing by train. We met at 10:20am in the subway and crossed the rest of the city together to get to the station.
This train station is brand new and was opened right before the Olympics. Unfortunately it's not connected to any subway line. It will be by 2010 or 2011 or never. It's quite not logical to build a train station having in mind to make it the largest of the city and not connecting to the public transportation (they've already put all the signs though in the station just masking them with red stickers like it will be opening in 1 week from now). Well, what can I say... it's China.
Now to be fair this station is impressive. It feels more like an airport than a train station. Everything is clean, there is space and light, very nice piece of design let's admit it. Go check more pictures here.
Now let's not lose focus. We wanted to get to Tianjin. From this station there are express trains leaving for Tianjin every 15min. Assuming you can understand the schedule table, you're ok :)
By the time we understood the schedule, the fares, the different classes... the only next ticket we could buy was at 3pm... Can you believe it, 1 train every 15min and they were all full for the next 4 hours or so!!!
Disappointed we decided to go for lunch next to the temple of Heaven.
PS: My parents and I did get tickets for Sunday. At least we're sure to go. Will we come back? that's another question as we can only buy return ticket in Tianjin.
PS2: and no there is no online booking in China. You have to go to the station and buy your ticket there.
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