A 5:00am start, to get down to check out of the hotel and get a taxi to Beijing Station for our first experience with the Trans-Siberian Railway, the leg from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, leaving at 7:25am.
The taxi dropped us off at the station, at the foot of a pedestrian overpass with umpteen steps to traverse — not quite the thing with a couple of heavy cases. A gentleman with a tuk-tuk offered to carry our cases around to the front of the station. We accepted gladly. When we reached our destination Warren tried to pay him 20 yuan for his trouble, but he kept saying 'one'. We finally got the message that he meant 'one hundred' (about $20), which was 4 times what it had cost for the taxi! We finally paid him, but a word of warning to all comers — negotiate the payment BEFORE accepting the offer!
Getting into the station was easy, as apparently since the Beijing Olympics a few years ago, all Chinese signage in public places is repeated in English. We got into the station, into the appropriate waiting area for the K3 train to Ulaanbaatar about an hour before it left, so we had time for a little breakfast. A lady on the concourse was doing a roaring trade in hot hard-boiled eggs and dumplings. We concluded that the locals couldn't be far wrong, so we followed suit. Let's just say that it was probably a better choice than McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks, all of whom have a presence in the station!
We were on board the train by 7, and it pulled out exactly on time. (Why are we not surprised?)
The train was full of travelers from far and wide, and we got into conversation with a Swiss couple, a Sydneysider, a Canadian, amongst others. Quite a congenial traveling group. And, of course, lots of Chinese!
Early in our journey, the conductor of our carriage had come around with free meal vouchers. People in our carriage could redeem them between 11:30am and 12 for lunch, and 5:30 to 6pm for dinner. They were packed as takeaway, and we brought them back to our carriage to eat them (although some stayed to eat in the dining car, but space was at a premium there). The meals were simple but delicious Chinese fare.
There's a lot of work going on in China. The railway is not exempt. But we noticed that a surprising amount of it is still being done by manual labour.
Our train, though not as rapid as the bullet train, took us first eastwards, stopping at Zhanjiakou and Datong, then turning northwards, stopping at Jining, Tomortei, until we got to the Mongolian border at Erlien. This was a long stop, as two things had to happen — passport control for leaving China, and the bogeys on all the carriages had to be changed over for the different rail gauge in Mongolia. We had previously filled out customs declarations and immigration forms for both countries, and they took the Chinese ones and our passports (taking great care that our faces matched the passport photos!) for processing. We stayed on board for the whole process, which was fascinating. Each carriage had to be taken into a workshop, raised on huge jacks, the old bogeys rolled out from underneath and the new ones rolled in, then the carriage lowered and the bogeys locked in place. With many a bump and shudder and clang the job was finished. Our passports, appropriately stamped with the China exit stamps, were returned to us at 12:40am. We had got into the station at 8:00pm, and didn't get out until 12:20am the next day, meaning we were stuck in Erlien for a total of 4 hours and 20 minutes.
Well, we're across the Mongolian border, coming up to Zamyn-Üüd where the Mongolians will have their turn to do the border crossing business — but that's a story for tomorrow's blog entry!
It is interesting to know what you guys were doing until came to Mongolia��
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