Back in China
After a long journey, I returned to China. First an overnight train from Ulaanbaatar to Erlian, just across the border in China. The train left UB at 20:30, early enough to see the sun set over the green steppes just outside Ulaanbaatar. In the darkness the train crossed hundreds of kilometers of similar landscape, and I woke up early (6:30) to see the sun rise over the Gobi desert. Quite a beautiful sight, but not a lot of sand dunes. Just sand, with some patches of grass, and now and then a big rock on the horizon.
The train reached the Chinese border at around 10:00, and stopped for 2 hours to let customs officers check passports. There was also a thorough check of the heating system. All hatches and panels covering the radiators where opened, and the space behind scrutinized with a flashlight. Heating was not needed, but I suspect that they were looking for smuggled goods hidden behind the panels, or maybe there had been a bomb alarm (???). I have no idea, but it took forever before we continued to the Chinese border post, just a kilometer away. There, at the station of Erlian, we could not get off the train before everbody was checked. We spent more than 4 hours waiting on the train, before we were allowed to get off and set foot on Chinese soil.
From Erlian I took a bus to Jining, a 6 hour trip. Almost all other people took the sleeper bus to Beijing, but I didn't want to go there again. My plan was to go to Pingyao. I didn't get further than Datong however. After reaching Jining, I got on a train to Datong (2 hours), and by the time I got there it was already 22:30. The hotel which was listed in Lonely Planet did offer shared rooms for just 35 Yuan (10 Yuan less than listed in the guide book), breakfast included. The only problem is that I can't get a train ticket to Pingyao from here. Only standing tickets, for a 10 hour overnight trip, that's just too much. I have to check tomorrow morning if there is a bus going that way. Otherwise I'm stuck.
I swapped my mobile phone back to my Chinese number: +8613730680653.
The train reached the Chinese border at around 10:00, and stopped for 2 hours to let customs officers check passports. There was also a thorough check of the heating system. All hatches and panels covering the radiators where opened, and the space behind scrutinized with a flashlight. Heating was not needed, but I suspect that they were looking for smuggled goods hidden behind the panels, or maybe there had been a bomb alarm (???). I have no idea, but it took forever before we continued to the Chinese border post, just a kilometer away. There, at the station of Erlian, we could not get off the train before everbody was checked. We spent more than 4 hours waiting on the train, before we were allowed to get off and set foot on Chinese soil.
From Erlian I took a bus to Jining, a 6 hour trip. Almost all other people took the sleeper bus to Beijing, but I didn't want to go there again. My plan was to go to Pingyao. I didn't get further than Datong however. After reaching Jining, I got on a train to Datong (2 hours), and by the time I got there it was already 22:30. The hotel which was listed in Lonely Planet did offer shared rooms for just 35 Yuan (10 Yuan less than listed in the guide book), breakfast included. The only problem is that I can't get a train ticket to Pingyao from here. Only standing tickets, for a 10 hour overnight trip, that's just too much. I have to check tomorrow morning if there is a bus going that way. Otherwise I'm stuck.
I swapped my mobile phone back to my Chinese number: +8613730680653.
posted by marc at 23:59
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