We Meet Laidi Chen - Page 1
We Take the train from Qingdao to Beijing After we had spent 10 or so days visiting friends in Qingdao we boarded a train to Beijing. It was an overnight trip and we had a hard bed ticket. Hard bed is an open compartment with six bunks like hammocks, three high on each side. I had the top bunk and Bernice had the middle bunk. The lady on the bottom traded me for the bottom bunk. We went to sleep and the next morning, as is the case, at 5:30 the lady conductor wakes everyone and takes the blankets. We had brought some food for our breakfast and then we settled down to watch the scenery.A Chinese lady is Surprised to see Long Noses in a Chinese Car While we were just looking at the passing scenery a Chinese lady stopped to say hello to us. She introduced herself as Laidi Chen. She said that she was surprised to see foreigners riding in the hard bed section and wanted to know what we were doing and where were we going. Her English was very good. So we spent the next couple of hours talking. She lived in Beijing and was in Qingdao on business. She was very friendly and invited us to visit her in Beijing after we told her we knew no one in Beijing. She gave us her phone number and we parted.