The Great Wall of China -- Jishanling

First stop in China, after a day of running errands (getting new SIM card, replacing my falling apart backpack, getting taken out to dinner by my new director and eating my way through the street food vendors of my neighborhood) was to see the Great Wall of China.  Near Beijing, there are four of five places to go.  Most of you have seen pictures of Badaling, which is the closest, but also the one with the most tourists.  D and I chose to head out to Hebei Province to Jishanling, which is actually a national park.  You'll see in the photos that in some places the wall is in a state of disrepair (what does one expect after 600-700 years of exposure to the elements) but in other places it has been renovated quite nicely.  We hiked about 10.5 km of the wall in about 5 hours, taking our time, taking lots of pictures and even throwing the frisbee around on the wall itself.  The weather was gorgeous and as you'll see, we essentially had the wall to ourselves.  Already, an early highlight of my Beijing life.

Across Russia Leg 4 -- Irkutsk to Beijing

Train #4 is THE Trans-Mongolian!  It leaves once a week from Moscow, follows the same path all the way to just east of Irkutsk and then cuts south into Mongolia before ending in Beijing.

At Ulan-Ude, the Trans-Mongolian takes a different course than the Tran-Manchurian and Trans-Siberian.

The difference on this leg?  Almost the ENTIRE train was populated by Westerners, mostly Europeans.  Our kupe-mates were a couple of guys from the Basque region of Spain.

At the town of Nauski, we had immigration check.  The way it worked here was that everyone sat in their kupe as the officers came by and collected passports.  At that point we were let off the train.

This ominous looking sign.....

No one paid attention.  We just walked right past it to go to the food stands in town.

You see the guy in the shorts with his back to us?  D and I met him back in St. Petersburg as he stayed in our same hotel.  We called him the "Dutch Guy."  He was the most obnoxious and clueless guy we met.  We avoided him at all cost.  After a few hours, we were called back onto the train and had our passports returned.

Can you see the outlines of the fence?  That's the fence between Mongolia and Russia.

About 15 minutes after leaving Nauski, we stopped AGAIN to do immigration and customs checks on the Mongolian side.

The Mongolians are much more relaxed as witnessed by the shadow of watchguard who was on his cell phone.

I have to admit that when we got on the train in Irkutsk, I was under the impression we were headed to Beijing on the Trans-Manchurian.  So when we ended up in Mongolia I was surprised.

After checking around, it appeared that all the Americans had their stamps on the same page in their passports, page 23.  We suspect it's because it is the page with the train.

Sunrise in Mongolia

Turns out most all the Westerners on the train were headed here, to Ulaanbaatar.  After our 7AM half hour stop here, and we got new passengers, the train was about half full.  D and I had the entire kupe to ourselves for the remainder of the trip.

Throughout Mongolia, the power lines were attached to cement posts.  Is this to make them more stable?  Or to make sure the tops are above the snow?  Both?  Or some other reason?

The typical small town scene in Mongolia.

According to our guide book, this silver painted monument is of the first Mongolian astronaut.  Why here?  Who knows.

The brights lights of CHINA!!!

The border crossing in China lasted 4 hours because we had to do both immigration AND spend an hour or so in this building.

Turns out that Russia and Mongolia use rails that are 3.5 inches WIDER than the rails used in China, Europe and North America.  Therefore, we had to change the bogies on the train.

Each car was separated and then lifted up.

Russian bogies rolled out...

...Chinese bogies attached.

Turns out that the Trans-Mongolian is run by the Chinese, not Russian railroad system.  Because of that, the attendants were Chinese (and all men).  Because I spoke Chinese, D and I got special treatment by our attendant.  I made friends with this jolly guy.  He was excellent!

About two hour before reaching Beijing, the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!

The mountains north and west of Beijing.

And after 59 hours on the last leg, BEIJING RAILWAY STATION.  Exiting the station and entering the humanity of people rushing around, was a "things just got real" welcome to China.  BRING IT ON!!!