My mate Peter, like RachelLynn before him, is currently passing through Shanghai on a grand tour from Korea to Europe without flying (RL going on from there to Canadialand). It’s quite the journey, a boat from Incheon to Qingdao, the train from Qingdao to somewhere good, through China, through Russia and Westward, ever Westward.
The message I’m getting from both of them is that buying train tickets is a difficult business; and unless you get started on it early, you’ll end up sitting on a hard seat for 15-19 hours.Peter has just been to Beijing, where he says the construction there is even crazier than it is in Shanghai. Just on the short walk back from the pub last night we passed several big building sites where people work through the night.

Peter and a workman
Peter and a guy guarding an open manhole

The government recently passed a law in Shanghai that means you can’t use your car’s horn in the city centre because of the noise. Fair enough, although I’m a bit surprised that traffic noise is considered more annoying than a jackjammer going hell-for-leather at 3am.

nightwork.jpg