Today I got the experience of riding the overnight Z class train from Shanghai to Beijing. At first glance the train was amazingly clean. I purchased a ticket for roughly 500 yen which is equivalent to about $60. The train cabins were split into 4 beds each with its own blanket, pillows and slippers. It initially was pretty warm when I got there. We were warned by the train mechanic that he was working on fixing the AC so it was basically a sweatbox for a few hours. I managed to meet a young man name Mao Yong who was very friendly and eager to learn English. We talked for a few hours about the country of China and everything U.S. including basketball. It turned out that Mao was a big fan of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls one of my favorite teams. It came out to be that he was a thermo nuclear engineer travelling with his boss on business to Beijing then heading to Mongolia the next day. It was a pleasant change speaking English to someone who had the eagerness to learn. I promised him that I would keep in touch. We exchanged business cards. 12 hours later we comfortably reached our destination of Beijing.