Shanghai to Beijing? Train is Better than Air

Courtesy: The following travel experience is published at
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20081027_shanghai_to_beijing_train_is_better_than_air_.htm

kTonight, I am going to Beijing, and will be back on Wednesday night. Previously, my trip was all via flights. After I tried train the last time, I decided to switch all my trip to Beijing to train in the future. Why?

Time Efficiency

Although train takes much longer than flight - 12 hours vs 2 hours, the biggest advantage of train is, it wasted your time at night, especially deep night, instead of train.

Most fast trains between Shanghai and Beijing travel between something like 19:44 PM at night, and arrive at the other city at around 7:00 AM the other day. For busy business persons, it is ideal.

By Air

I, for example, have to plan for a night or morning to take flight. My typical schedule by air looks like:

1. Flight from PVG to PEK at 9:00 AM, arrives at 12:00 PM. Have a meeting in the afternoon, and night, and fly back the next afternoon at 7:00 PM, and arrive at around 10:00 PM (tired day).
- or -
2. Flight from PVG to PEK at 7:00 PM, arrives at late night (tired and taking taxi to hotel), spend the night at hotel and have meeting the other day.

For a 1 hour meeting in Beijing, typically you need to take two day off from work.

By Train

For train, it is different. My new schedule is:

1. Work full day on Monday, and have my last meeting at 6:00 PM. I even have dinner with others before I go to train station at 7:00 PM
2. Get on train before 7:44 PM, and sleep on the train - maybe talk a little bit on the train with travel partnres.
3. Wake up in the morning at 7:00 AM, and take metro to where my first meeting is.
4. If I don't have other things, I can travel back at around 7:00 PM in Beijing, and arrive in Shanghai the third day morning.
5. I can directly come to work on Wed morning (this trip has more things to do, so I stay two days, and get back to Shanghai on Thursday).

In that typical trip, it seems there is no travel cost - if you count in terms of work hours. It is just like three continous working day in the same city.

Besides that, you saved all your hotel cost.

I will try my first travel like this and report back about how well it works.

Train Travel In China

Take a step closer to the information......


















You can get an idea by visiting the website of The Man In Seat Sixty-One ( http://www.seat61.com/China.htm ).

Beijing Travel Guide And Tour Packages

You can please visit..
Beijing Travel Guide And Beijing Tour Packages

Extreme Survival Quiz : Man Vs Wild

You set out for a leisurely stroll which turns out not to be a walk in the park. Can you survive mud bogs, raging waterfalls, scorching heat ... and more? Begin here, your peformance level determines your scope of survival.....

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/quiz/extreme-survival/extreme-survival.html

Hanging Out!

Here's some advice...
If you're about to get arrested by the police in Kazakhstan, climb the nearest pole! The police will fall over themselves with laughter and invite you back to their homes for some camel's milk...
If you get shot you only have yourself to blame...

Road Trip From Bangalore To Kottayam

letz focus on travel route details alone here........
For people who wish to enjoy the travel experience by road , let me take you through the travel route details.





To access details about the Kottayam, places to visit in Kottayam, an url is made available to you to make it easy for you.
http://www.ktm.kerala.gov.in/

Hope you had a snapshot and got familiar about kottayam by visiting to the above mentioned website.

So,

TWO ROUTES
Tamil Nadu (TN) route
b'lore - Krishnagiri - Salem - Madurai - Teni - Kumily - Kottayam

Kerala route
B'lore -Dharmapuri- Coimbatore--Palaghat-thrissur-Ernakulam(cochin)- Kotayam

YOU CAN SWITCH FROM TN TO KERALA ROUTES
From Salem, you can use bypass road ( wonderful!!!! If you will be speeding much, then better to drive with speed control) to reach palghat without entering coimbatore.

Travelling through blend of nature is usually an enjoyable experience in Kerala.

In TN route, I can tell this interesting one to you. Thekkady is 5Km from Kumuli. it is known for elephants, other wild animals, and famous dam.I missed thekkady, when i had went to munnar. Munnar is also in the round about of this route only. But munnar might require atleast a day to stay there and observe the nature before you get to kottayam.

ANY OF THESE ROUTES- TOTAL TIME
Approximately 9 - hours all together i believe. Better to start early.

Hope this information was useful to you.Have a nice time visiting Kottayam.

Beethoven's town...Bonn, a city of culture

Beethon

The concrete sculpture "Beethon" in front of the Beethovenhalle, created by the Düsseldorf artist Klaus Kammerichs has become a modern emblem of Beethoven’s city Bonn.













Beethoven Monument

The Beethoven Monument on the Münsterplatz was unveiled in August 1845 in honour of Beethoven's 75th birthday at the first Beethoven Festival. The statue's stance and symbolism characterise the "inspired composer" who, with an upward-turned gaze, seems to receive a creative inspiration to record it in his notebook with his stylus.










Old City Hall at the Markt

Visitors often climb the famous stairway in front of the facade to the platform where famous guests of the state, queens and kings once stood and made their speeches to thousands of people standing on the market place. Only a few steps away there's the Beethoven house where the composer was born in 1770. The nice building is a museum about life and works of Beethoven now.




Guided Tour about Beethoven in Bonn

A walk with 13 stops familiarizes you with key situations of Beethoven’s childhood and youth in Bonn. It was developed by a working group around the society "Citizens for Beethoven” and co-sponsored by Glasfachschule Rheinbach, City Parkraum GmbH and Stadtwerke Bonn.

The stops include Beethoven’s home at Bonngasse 20 with its Chamber Music Hall, Haus zum Mohren (House named "The Moor”), Saint Remigius Parish Church in Brüdergasse, the house at Rheingasse 24, the University Main Building (Lecture Hall 17) Schlosskirche (Palace Church), Zehrgarten/Markt (at the Old Town Hall), the Minster Church, (the former Minster School), the Beethoven Monument in the Münsterplatz, Kaufhof Department Store (former Breuning-House), the Beethoven Concert Hall, the Beethon Monument (a play on words of Beethoven and Beton = concrete), the tomb of Beethoven’s mother in the Old Cemetery (Alter Friedhof), the ancient ball room La Redoute and the Lippe Palais.



The Beethoven - Haus

The Beethoven-Haus, a landmark of Bonn, is supported by the Beethoven House Trust (founded in 1889) and encompasses a Museum, the Beethoven Archives and the Chamber Music Hall. The Museum displays a representative selection from the trust's collections, the largest privately-owned Beethoven collection in the world. Portraits, original manuscripts, instruments and everyday objects convey a lively and authentic glimpse into the life and work of the composer. The Beethoven Archives founded on the 100th anniversary of Beethoven's death in 1927 as a scientific research institute, are the central repository of documents relating to Beethoven's life, work and intellectual circle and own also a special library. The Chamber Music Hall, inaugurated in 1989, not only has outstanding acoustics, but is also considered to be a particularly beautiful modern concert hall. Alongside the special emphasis on the music of Beethoven and his contemporaries, music of modern times is also performed and promoted here.
In the years to come it is planned to open the Beethoven Haus round the clock to the world’s public: In the virtual ‘Digital Beethovenhaus’, Internet users will find everything about the composer, his work, his life and his time. To the sound of Beethoven’s music, they will be able scroll original editions and manuscripts which are exhibited nowhere else.



Click Speciality , if you want to know about the speciality of Beethoven.