Back on track

The seventh day of my journey started early again, since I had to catch my train before it left Irkutsk at 8:14 in the morning. I met a guy from Switzerland at the hostel, who was taking the same train to Beijing, and we took the tram to the station together. There I hurried through -19 degrees to get to my wagon. My ticket for this part of the journey was quite more expensive compared to my trip from Moscow to Irkutsk, but I got something in return. The train was more modern, cleaner and less noisy. I shared my compartment with two others, a man and a woman, both Russian. The man was very talkative anyway, trying to tell and ask me all sorts of stuff in Russian (I believe he even tried to set me up with a guy in the next compartment, though I’m not sure). This train made less stops and it was already 16:21 when I finally could get out again for fresh air and to buy some food and water. That evening, I was looking forward to going to bed early and not having to rise early for a change!

The next morning, a Russian woman joined us in the compartment, while the other Russian lady left soon after. The young woman spoke English, better than she gave herself credit for! Her name was Natalja and she was heading for Beijing, having lived there for ten years already.

I spent most of the morning gathering courage to visit the train restaurant. I wanted to eat at least once there – I visited the restaurant in the train from Moscow to Irkutsk, but there it was tacky to say the least, with its pink curtains, bright green benches and a waitress who seemed less than pleased to see a potential guest. I was

very relieved to see the restaurant in this train was completely different and actually quite pleasant, and I was again gladly surprised by the quality of the food. Soon after I’d eaten my fill, we all had to get out of the train. We were in Zabaikalsk, just 1 kilometre from the border and the wheels of all the wagons had to be changed to fit on the tracks in China. I stumbled upon two other train travellers, whom I recognized from my wagon, a girl and a guy from Germany. They were just planning to explore the town and I could come along. On our way, we were joined by others; the guy from Switzerland I met in Irkutsk, a guy and a girl from Spain and a man from England. Some days, no one seems to speak English and other days, everyone can!

Together we walked through the deserted streets, where the only signs of life seemed to be dogs barking in their yards. You could see the high buildings of the Chinese town Manzhouli lying across the

border, but on our side it was all silent and unkempt. We visited a little supermarket and then made our way back to the station, where we spend the rest of our time waiting in a small cafeteria, exchanging stories about the train and our travels and discussing in which time zone we actually were now. At one point, the staff suddenly ushered us out of the café and to the train, as if it might leave any minute. At the platform, however, we saw that the locomotive wasn’t even attached yet. Even so, we were allowed to enter the train, so we headed back to our compartments, where the waiting continued.
Sometime later, a man with a dog far too cute for its job came to sniff our bags for anything illegal. Then, our passports were checked, taken away and after a while returned again. It was already dark when the train slowly came to life, crossed the border and stopped at the Chinese border town, Manzhouli, where the whole process of checking bags and passports began again. Immediately, the difference between the Russians and the Chinese became clear. The Russians border control workers were all silent glares, while the Chinese were almost cheerful and eager to know where we were from.

It all took a few hours and Natalja and I spend most of the time talking about Russia and Holland, my travels, Beijing and all its places to go. We exchanged contact details, and then Natalja changed places within the train, moving to another wagon. I didn’t know why, but it seemed there was more switching around happening. In Natalja’s place came another young woman, Galina, or Gaia as I could call her. She was going to Beijing as well, and from there further on by plane, back to her job as a dancer. She was 24 years old, an artist and clothes designer, with a dreams to study in Italy, she told me.
After all this, it had all still hardly dawned to me I was in China. I didn’t go out on the platform in Manzhouli; tiredness and the idea of the cold kept me in. These long days on the train, with just a small

bunk to call my own, and the many tiring hours of waiting meant that at that moment practicality (read: sleep) came first. There would be time enough tomorrow to realize I was actually in China – and if not the next day, then all of the coming year.

When I looked out of the window that next day, the first thing I saw was that the snow was gone. The Chinese landscape was brown and grey, woods and villages. At first, the land didn’t seem that different from Russia (apart from the lack of snow), but soon I noticed that wherever was habitation, from the tiniest village to the cities, people had hung bright red lanterns from every light pole, every roof edge and every entrance, a clear sign that the Lunar New Year was celebrated not that long ago.

Harbin was the first big city I saw in China. At first there wasn’t much to see – if the view wasn’t blocked by the station building itself, the station in its turn was surrounded by high grey buildings.
I spoke my first Chinese after almost two months to a salesman on the platform, to buy my lunch. Just managing to ask for water and confirming how much it costed, felt like I had passed some sort of test. As soon as we left the station of Harbin, I got a good look at the city, and at the many, many flats - all more than ten stories high, bulky, brown or grey, dotted with windows, and it seemed like there were as many flats being built as there were already standing. As Galina said, this was every city in China. And from what I’ve seen, it’s true!

It was a very lazy day on the train. Galina slept long and spent the rest of the day working on a beautiful embroidered flower. She shared some of the food her mother made her – I got to try some very good Russian pizza! The last evening on the train, I went to get dinner in the Chinese train restaurant. I played it safe, ordering scrambled eggs, tomatoes and rice, but it was good! (And it made me realize I hadn’t really eaten vegetables in days) As it turned out, my first day in China wasn’t all that different from other days I spend in the train. But that would soon change. The next morning, the train would arrive at its destination: Beijing.