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Published: June 11th 2008
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Trans-Manchurian
A good start - but a bit dark as we did not have the electricity plugged in for the carriage yet! So I make train 20 - the Trans-Manchurian and I start with a full carriage to myself. There is some confusion when the train arrives as there is no carriage twenty for me to board - but I quickly realise that they will add further carriages at each stop and when I board it is empty apart from the usual dour russian provodnik and me! I am also at the back of the train so I can easily get some shots of the view from the back which will be nice. Later I am joined by Walter a Beijinger who is super friendly and inquisitive compared to my last compatriot but He does not speak english and so our conversations use the manadarin phrasebook and take hours to determine do i have children? - no - do you have children? - yes- what do you have a boy or girl? - a boy- a bit obvious for a chinese mainlander but it kept us amused for many hours. We share food and this time there will be no mistakes - I bought all of the fruit I coud find in Irkutsk and plenty of other supplies for the journey. I am
desperate to see the lake one final time and stand for hours at the back of the train camera at the ready - and after almost giving up we get some spectacular shots later in the day. I retire that evening very happy and awake the next day to find two further carriages added and the usual grumpy provodniks who do not want you outside your own carriage. The train is better equipped than the 350 and has flatscreen TV's for films but the provodniks just play films at night when they change shifts and simply start watching then till they get bored and then switch them off after five minutes to watch another. The carriage has also filled up with Chinese and I believe that we passed Chita in the night so no military interrogation for me! Later in the day we pull up at Zabaikalsk which feels and looks similar to how I would imagine Beiruit would be back in the 80's. We spend a whole day going through border control and changing the train gauge of the wheels to suit the Chinese lines. We do get to disembark and spend most of the day on the platform
Irkutsk Station
I was so sad to go - but I had put two weeks in here which when I scrambled off the Trans-Siberian I could never have imagined would be so good! or in the shops close by. Later we finally reboard and then get interrogated by the border guards. This involves a bag search but in my case not too onerous and then alot of really hard staring at your passport while shining a light in your face and then complaints that you are not making the same face. the lady checking me is highly amused by something and goes away laughing which I am not sure is a good or bad thing - and then returns with another lady and a very stern looking troop for another half hour of hard staring and torch shining. After some further good natured humiliation we are away and I am in my last kilometre of Russia! It has been an incredible experience and I hope that the other two reprobates got through the border security as well as I think Youron had not registered his visa in Olkhon. But for me they did not even check any of that and all of the myths seemed to be false. We push on for a short time to Mznzhouli and now I am in China. Walter excitedly gets off the train to buy food and
quickly returns with a picnic of great food that shows you are in China. We move around the station building for a while but it is very late now and so we board the train. Chinese border guards get on and immediately locate an english speaker to deal with me - and I have to say they were extremely polite and allthough they searched me twice and asked alot of questions about what everything was they were more curious then stern and seemed to think I was some mountain climber. So after many hours we manage to get back into bed for our last full day on the train before Beijing. I awake the next day eager to see what the north of China is like and to start with the scenery is mountainous with the charachteristic Chinese shaped mountain - and later it switches to desert plain mixed in with farms and rice paddy's and some small cities. We pass Harbin a huge city and the main oil field in China and then push on. The Chinese have been kind enough to add a restaurant car and the food is very good and also very fresh - and cheap!
View from the rear!
Most of the morning was with tracks disappearing into the horizon - I did not know if I would get to see the lake again! I retire eager to see Beijing again.
In the early morning we get pulled out of bed by the Provodnik as we approach Beijing Central. I say a final goodbye to Walter and then am the last to get off the train and get out. The station is chaotic but alot of fun and I get outside and then walk up to Tianamen Square as I know this part of Beijing well from last years travels. I find a hotel after some fun in the Hutongs and settle in.
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