Satellite
  • Day 4

    View from a window .

    November 7, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We've by on the train for about 2 hrs now. After the first 150 or so km the air quality improved dramatically and we could see across the plains of fields to tower blocks and distant towns. We had a long pause at one station and after that mountains appeared. For a few minutes we passed extensive quarrying works; entire mountains being chewed up. For the last 15 minutes we have been in a tunnel, at 200km/hr (the speed has dropped in here) that is a long tunnel. I suspect that the scenery we can see from the windows is the scrubby mountains we saw from the air. Some dramatic valleys and rivers appear occasionally but mostly it seems to be just hills/mountains and the odd sign of human lives.
    Meanwhile the overhead screen shows a variety of information.... All about how the trains and tracks are built. Some tourist type info. Some adverts. How to exercise in your seat. How jade ornaments are produced and of course some behavioural and political messages.
    Travelling more slowly now less than 200km /hr and arriving in a huge industrial city, factories, cooling towers, cement works (for all the stone from those quarried hills) and lots of identical new tower blocks and lower level apartment buildings.
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