So I got on the train no problem, everything was smooth in Beijing. The ride out to Harbin was quiet, a nice sleeper car, so caught up on rest, a little reading and a little looking at the countryside. I was going to be purchasing a ticket to Suifenhe once I arrived and then deciding in Suifenhe whether I would take the bus or train into Russia. I arrived in Harbin very early, so early that I was wondering why the agent that was in Harbin would not sell me a ticket to Vlad, there was no problem with time to connect. As soon as I entered the train station in Harbin, I knew I was in trouble. In Beijing, where there was my alphabet to use for chinese words, only their characters existed here. Dead.
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