Blogs from Changbai Shan, Jilin, China, Asia

The busride to Baihe was amazing. While the outside temperature was around -22°C, the busdriver liked it warm and put the heating on level "hell". Within one hour there were around 32°C inside and we had to face the truth: it was the most stupid idea to enter the bus, still wearing all the layers we had to wear in Changchun. In an acrobatic act we tried to get rid of at least 2 layers. The temperature was further boosted by a natural character trait that seems to be inherent to a lot of chinese guys: making business. Of course it is not really convenient to put only as much people in the bus as seats are available. So the bus stopped several times to pick up a lot more people. These people were really clever ... read more

Wednesday the 16th was a festival holiday in China for the Dragon Boat Festival. The owners of the Woodland Youth Hostel invited us for lunch at their parents house in the back streets of Baihe. Luckily Helena and Lynn teach English at school, so conversation wasn't to bad. We ate homemade Dumplings and boiled eggs from their hens, they also have a superb veg garden and a large guard dog!Our legs were sore from sitting on the floor called a Kung. Thank you Zheng Family for your hospitality. ... read more

A 10.30 sleeper from Beijing to Shenyang capital of Liaoning province,arrived at 7.00am and tried to hail 6 taxis without success. None of them would take us to the Shenyang YH, don't know why,maybe language barrier. We ended up walking most of the way. Stayed 3 nights and visited the Imperial Palace,Botanical gardens and on the 3rd day Beiling Park to the North Tomb. We left again by train,early 7am,crossing into Tongue 160 km north in the province of Jilin.One night in a chain cheapy and another train to our main destination for the next 5 days Baihe which is only 200km from Vladivostok. Shenyang is not geared up for the tourists like Beijing, but the sites were the only highlight of our stay there. Oh and the Lao Bian Dumpling Restaurant which has been open ... read more

Changbai mountain, from Jilin province, border between China and North Korea, famous by the Ginseng and Celestial Lake. This time we went to the northeast of China, one of the main goals was to see the snowing, but by destiny irony, there was no snowing and the south of China, where we were living, had the worst snowstorm in the last 50 years, and when I was in the train from Harbin to Changbai mountain, I just heard the people saying: the south people have no experience to deal with the snowstorm, and we are sending the rescue there. The Changbai mountain is a volcanic mountain at 2744 meters, so there are some hot springs, very pleasant for the cold days of the winter. There is a Celestial Lake, or Heaven Lake, created by eruption of ... read more