Beijing to Jinan

Goodbye Baru! We left Beijing behind, and said farewell to our favorite tiny kitty, who we named "Baru". In Malay, Baru means "new". We saw it written on a bag of chips and thought it was a good name. A light drizzle cleared some pollution out of the air. We all piled into taxi cabs and headed for the Baijing South Rail Station. More than 20 sets of tracks converge here. This place is on the scale of an airport. When will we see such devotion to mass transit in the US?
245 kilometers per hour! That's about 150 mph. That's how fast I was moving on my way from Beijing to Jinan. Amtrak, you suck! The high speed rail system here is cheap, easy, comfortable and on time. All of western Europe does it, China does it, Japan and Korea too! WTF!? I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I really wish the US would "get on the train".
Edwin and I were discussing the differences between China and the US, and he pointed out the huge disparity in infrstructure funding. I don't know how much money China spends on pension plans, health care, and education. But according to Edwin, China is more capitalist than the United States in those regards. China seems to be setting aside a lot of public services in order to push forward with infrastructure. Is it more important to develop roads and rails, or pay for education and healthcare? I'm going to wait to see what happens in the next twenty years before I decide for c ertain. Nevertheless, I have a good guess which way will prove best in the long run.