Train: Qingdao to Beijing

We took a day train from Qingdao to Beijing. The route used to take 10 hours but now with the high speed train, it takes just under 6 hours. We paid the extra 30 Yuan each (60 total is less than $10) for First Class seats and enjoyed the extra space and comfortable seats - and free bottled water. A much different train experience than our overnight, "coach" class, old train journey. I spent most of my time watching the scenery and reading. It was a relaxing and interesting ride. We read that with the enormous amount of trains & tracks and the large population of China that there about 10 million Chinese traveling on trains at any given moment. Below are photos of the train and the scenery. There is also one video of the digital display in our section - it was in Chinese and English. Click on photos for a larger image.

The train's top speed during our journey was around 248 km/hr which is about 154 mph.