TransIrUBBeBAMBa (19) - Summary

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That was my first that long and remote travel, so on one hand I have fresh view, on the other - I'm still relatively unexperienced.


Eastern Russia (cities): expensive, poor standard of accomodation for money. Delicious food, kingdom of plaits. Ugly architecture, but that makes kind of area of interest for a visitor. I can only recommend it only to those who had seen everything and are now into exotic places.
 

Lake Baikal: great place for active tourism. Walk along Circumbaikal line or Great Baikal Trail may be an unforgetable holiday. Because of time and money needed to get there, lakes in Alps may offer overall better value.

Ulaanbaatar: ugly and boring.

 

Mongolia (countryside): spectacular. Next time I'll hire motorbike, take a tent and enjoy modern nomad life. Easier accesible since dropping visa requirement for EU citizens

Beijing: fascinating! We will be back there to see all the things we missed, and try some more of that cuisine. Definitely not in the summer though!
 

China: beatiful mountains. On our way to the Great Wall we met tourists heading for local villages, so there must be plenty of other things to see as well. And China is vast country, so hopefully we will be able to see a bit more.
 

Trans Siberian train - that looks for me like a legend created by travel agencies. There is not much one can do on the train, views through the window aren't that spectacular (if any, when travelling through forests), cities along the route of little charm (see above). Traveling on one of Russian (firmenny) trains at least guarantees comfort, but using Moscow-Beijing service it is plain survival.
Sharing room with 3 other people and toilet with several more is everyday life for many, so I can't see any excitement in that neither.
Forget all the vodka parties and socialising: the trains are patrolled so heavy drinking is a no-no, and everybody minds their own business (using mobile/tablet/headphones). Oh, you need to know local dialect as well, as I did not experience much of English literacy in the area.
 

BAM (Baikal - Amur Mainline) - beautiful scenery, wilder area. If you love train rides (and those are still diesel operated), I would recommend it more than Transsib.

Clearly my feelings are mixed - I do not regret being in some of those places, I just feel (and recommend) for the same time or money spent, one can have nicer memories elsewhere.
One reason that could affect the perception was the intensity of travel: 5 flights, 4 long-distance train rides, hoverplane and all the local journeys, all within just 2.5 weeks - it wore us a bit.

As mentioned, we would love to come back to Mongolia and China, but spend there more time, and rather in the countryside.When we do that, we will share our memories again!

TransIrUBBeBAMBa (14) - Great Wall of China at Huanghuacheng

We chose less popular section of the wall at Huanghuacheng. There are actually two places to try: at Xishuiyu reservoir and at Jintang Lake. The bus goes directly to the Lakeside reserve in Xishuiyu, where are also bits of submerged wall, so we went there. For a fee of 45Y the Lakeside reserve offers well prepared paths, restored section of the wall and other attractions like boat rides. There is a section of the wall that can be walked on, but we did not get that far due to heat. The views were spectacular and the walk around the lake really nice. It is probably as 'genuine' as other popular sites, but possibly more picturesque and definitely not crowded at all.

 

 

Useful tips:

How to get to Huanghuacheng Great Wall? From Dongzimen bus station (from subway line 2 follow signs to airport express and bus hall) take bus 916. There are conflicting pieces of advice on the internet (and most look like straight translation from Chinese...), but there is just one bus 916 and it is the express line (it goes through a motorway). There was a long queue, but once one bus was full, another approached immediately.

In Hiariou, on one of the first stops taxi drivers board the bus, fish out the foreigners trying to convince them there is no other way to get to the wall than a taxi. Do not get off. On the big roundabout the bus turns left, do not get off on that stop (unlike we did). Get off after the bus turns right on the traffic lights, that's what is called 'tax office'. Return to the lights, turn right and cross the road, 50m further there is a bus stop. Wait for bus H21, it takes you right to the lakeside reserve car park. See the track log of our ride with marked change location, beware in Google maps there is offset between vector and photo map (use the latter for precision)

On the way back H21 stops where you (should have) left 916 from Beijing. Go back to the traffic lights, go straight across and the return stop of 916 is about 200m away.

All the buses were air conditioned, it took about 2 hours from Dongzimen to the Lake Reserve (916 going every 10-15 minutes, H21 every 30 minutes), it cost us 9.60 Y total (adult single) with yikatong/IC card. If you did not buy it before, do it at Dongzimen, at the Airport express hall (passed on the way to the bus) there is ticket office issuing them. That will save you money (travel with the card is at discounted rate) and pleasure of dealing with conductor on board. Just scan the card when entering the bus and then when leaving (fare is distance based). 

If you want to see the wall at Jintang lake, get off at the cross roads to Huanghuacheng village (there is a bus shelter on the left, if you miss it just return to that spot), possibly there is another bus going closer to the lake as the main road goes through that pass.

Next: Khabarovsk

TransIrUBBeBAMBa (13) - Beijing

That place is dense. People like ants, thick air, intensive scents and noise. I did not even try to capture the character of the place on photos, as they cannot catch a fraction of that sensation. If ever next time, I'll try filming. It has to be experienced to be understood. We were there for 4 days only, but with temperatures reaching 35 deg our walks were limited because so exhausting.

We've been to hutongs and it is actually surprising that so much of Beijing is still made of those, although modern buildings eat into their territory. As much as they might be interesting for a foreigner, they are still basically slums, and I stand by my opinion cast after seeing those in Suzhou earlier.

We went to Tiananmen Square and were discourage by long queue to go through security checks. Well until we got to the Forbidden City gates, the queues were even longer, and we ended up being cuddled in the Chinese crowd for half an hour, just to be stripped from water bottles at the security check.

We went through the Forbidden City, but it is so large, and it was too hot and too crowded to really enjoy it.

We came back to Tiananmen Square in the evening for flag lowering ceremony. Funny, but the checks closed at 19 sharp (that day sunset was 19.23), so again we had to queue to the only one left open. There is actually nothing exciting about the ceremony, maybe only the fact that right after it finishes the square closes, so the policemen themselves, their cars and loud tannoys order the crowd to leave immediately, what lookes a bit like spreading a demonstration.

On the last day we planned to see the Summer Palace, but went to Beishi Park instead. Much closer, much smaller (and cheaper, at 20 Y), and still exhibiting a lot of 'Chinese gardens' idea.

The food was of course one of the highlights: it is different, at least tastes interestingly, but usually is simply delicious. And even if something not up to taste was ordered (those pictures in menus do not look very similar to what lands on your plate), it is so cheap, that it doesn't hurt to get another dish.

It is so sad the Chinese forget how to cook when opening takeaways abroad :(

Useful tips

How to get around Beijing? Use subway (underground). It is frequent, fast, air conditioned and dead cheap at 2Y a trip. It is a bit tough to plan the trip in advance, as all the available pieces of information are in Chinese only (like the official map), but on the trains the maps and active travel display have romanised descriptions too.

How to buy a ticket for Beijing subway? Single trip tickets can be bought from machines or at the ticket office. A trip starts when you enter at one station, and ends when leave at another, you can change as many times as you want during a trip. If staying for longer like us, the multitrip card (called yikatong over internet, but described simply as IC card in Beijing itself) is the choice.

Where to buy yikatong/IC card? Here is the full list of places tobuy/recharge/return, but if you arrive at the main train station here is a quick guide: from station exit turn left and go across the square in front of station building. Pass entrance C of the metro, walk across the bridge to the other side of the road to the A (north-eastern) entrance. Right after security screening there is ticket office, the window on the right issues IC cards and refunds when returned. It is important, as only few places refund IC cards and there is balance of 20Y (plus whatever left from you credit) frozen on them.

Where to stay? With our budget of £50 a night we actually struggled to find something in that price bracket: all the popular booking services offered either 5 star suites or 2 and below shitholes (being suspiciously cheap) here. We booked Howard Johnson Paragon directly at hojo.com. I stayed in their hotel previously so knew what to expect and indeed we got decent room. The best asset of this hotel is its location, right opposite the train station, with large shopping centre underground and direct access through it to subway loop line (2) station.

Forget about internet access there though, it just did not work, being generally useless anyway due to China information blocking policies. Also changing reservation with this franchise is an unusual pain, but we finally managed to change last night of stay into late checkout. 

Next: Great Wall of China at Huanghuacheng