Coming to China

The final section of our TransSiberian Experience was the 27 hour trip to Beijing, south across the Gobi desert and into much lush terrain.




The trip highlights? A more salubrious train for one, although the sheer midnight fun of watching the lifting up of the carriages to change the bogies beneath -- so that the wheels can fit the narrower gauge lines in China -- takes some beating.




Vodka and orange juice helped, although not the next morning when attempts to spend our remaining Mongolian tugriks were thwarted by the new Chinese dining car's preference for dollars. This is why you go in a group ...




With the new day, desert gave way to green and mountainous terrain showing every sign of agriculture. And mist, or fog, or smog: hot, humid and heavy. And so the Harmony Hotel became our home for the next few days.


- Posted when possible; if it isn't the wifi, it's the server ...