The public transit system in Beijing is freaking amazing. Its new infrastructure puts everything i’ve ever seen to shame. Everything is new, clean, and had large open spaces. I mainly took the line 2 which seemed to lack the usual amount of crazy people that I am used to seeing on a train ride. A trip on the Beijing subway cots ¥2 (equal to $0.32 USD) which beats the hell out of Chicago’s $2.25.
Just so that you know, its kinda weird being a white dude on a train in China. The effects of being a minority are in full force. One must be prepared for random people to take pictures of you at point blank range, and little kids will be laughing and staring at the mei guo ren (america people). Also, its a fun game to stare back at other people directly in the eyes. They will quickly look away as though they weren’t surprised by your appearance. I had many moments where chinese women were obviously very scared and quickly turn in the other direction to avoid walking near me. HAHAHAHHA….
Taking the bullet train was another trip and a half. Again the architectural infrastructure was super modern and all of the transit information was presenting in both Chinese and English. We travelled from Beijing to Tianjin, a trip that by car takes roughly two hours. On a bullet train going about 200km/h it took us just under 30 minutes.
Enter the NOOSPHERE 