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China

Training It

by Keith on March 1, 2011 · 2 comments

We took a variety of transportation options while traveling, but one of my favorites was the multitude of trains. The picture above is me on a steam locomotive at the Modern Transportation Museum in Osaka.  We took intercity trains in Egypt, Vietnam, China and of course Japan.  We also took many intracity trains and subways in numerous countries from,

Duabi’s automated subway system to,

Kuala Lumpor’s private system run by 2 companies that never seemed to connect in a convenient way.

The differences did not stop there.  Train stations varied widely across the different countries with the station in Aswan, Egypt ranking up there as the most uncomfortable and maybe even a little scary,

to the station in Kyoto, Japan as the most spacious and airy.

I would rather be at either of them when I miss my transfer in Trenton, New Jersey on my current work commute from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New Brunswick, New Jersey.  The station in Trenton, while it does have a Dunkin Donuts, does not have free wifi, sushi or the spotless bathrooms of Japanese stations.

The one serious advantage the train systems have here in the United States is the automated ticket machines in multiple languages. Buying my 10 pack of tickets for NJ Transit while waiting on the platform in New Brunswick for the 4:23 to Trenton is quite easy.

And having an English language ticket machine when we were in China would have saved Amy and I the pleasure of the 15 hour ride in Hard Sleeper Class, which we explore in more detail in this post.

I was inspired to write this post in part because my current commute has me on trains much more than I have ever been in the past. And having seen many different train systems from around the world, I think the system here in the Northeast U.S., is quite impressive. However, I do not think that this means we can stop investing in the amazing infrastructure that moves millions of people everyday. Septa alone moves 400,000 riders every weekday, and transports 70% of Center City Philadelphia’s work force into the city.  This is a hugely sustainable option for these workers.  Imagine if we lived with this density of population, and lack of interstates without this great infrastructure.  The Schuylkill (I-76) would be even more clogged, which I am not sure is even possible.

If you are interested in the strategic development of rail within the US, I recommend looking through Amtrak’s vision for High Speed rail in the Northeast, which you can find here.

I will be following up this post with a detailed analysis on the rational behind our decision to remain car-free since our return.  As you might have guessed, there was an excel sheet involved and much like the cost comparison of the Beast we looked at all the angles.  In the meantime let me know what you think about trains.  Should we as a country invest in more rail infrastructure?  Do you rely on trains to get where you need to?

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Great Wall in Photos

by Keith on June 8, 2010 · 3 comments

When you are in Beijing there are a couple of mandatory stops.  Climbing the Great Wall is one of them.  We decided that we would visit the Mutainyu section of the Great Wall, which is less touristy as it is a little further from Beijing.    After a short ride up in a chair lift we were off to climb the nearly 2K of restored Wall.  Below are a couple of our favorite shots from the beautiful day we had.

An unrestored section

Twisting up steep hills

The alpine slide you ride to get down from the Wall

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Shalom in Shanghai

by Amy on June 3, 2010 · 5 comments

Hello! The Chinese man at the ticket counter greets us in English.
Two, please.
OK.  Can I ask, are you Jewish?
I am, I reply.
Shalom! A huge grin comes across the man’s face.

Of all of the countries we’ve traveled to, China isn’t one where I expected to be greeted in Hebrew.  Sure, for Jews in the States, Chinese take out and Christmas Eve go hand in hand, but that’s usually where the connection between Jews and China ends.  Amazingly, it was at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum where I received this warm welcome.  We have come to see the site of the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue, where Jewish refugees gathered for religious rites during World War II.  The guidebooks had warned us not to expect much, but like a lot of what we experienced in China, the guidebooks were completely out of date.  The Museum consists of the former Synagogue and two very recently renovated exhibition halls that describe the history of the Jews in Shanghai and testimonials of many of those who lived and worshiped there.

Ohel Moshe Synagogue

The Synagogue is at the center of the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto, an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkou District of what was Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Approximately 30,000 Jews fleeing the atrocities in Europe found a safe haven here, one of the few places in the world accepting Jewish refugees without visas. Despite orders from the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Shanghai, the Chinese and Japanese protected this small Jewish community and most survived the harrowing wartime conditions.  The stories of narrow escapes from tragedy are juxtaposed with awkward Bar Mitzvah photographs and tales of friendships and romances between the Jewish refugees and local Chinese residents that bloomed in the 1940s.

The Chinese government recently restored the Synagogue using the original blueprints, which are on display in the former sanctuary.  The Museum also contains works of art celebrating the relationship between the Jews and the Chinese, including this print of two Jewish scholars deep in discussion as they stroll in front of a pagoda.

While most Jews left Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution in 1949, the brief history of the Jews in Shanghai is a small but fascinating tale of survival that is elegantly told at the Museum.  It is well deserving of a place on any itinerary in Shanghai.

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To see more photos of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum check out the slide show below.

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