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Karen G
RUSSIA, MONGOLIA, CHINA - 8,000kms BY RAIL

ON OUR WAY TO BEIJING


China


The Wall climbs the mountainous terrain behind us.

First glimpse of The Great Wall of China

Unbeknown to us who were sleeping soundly, we leave Mongolia by travelling through the Gobi Desert, now in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. After a breakfast in the restaurant car of omeletee and tea (no vodka, I'm afraid!) we notice the scenery gradually changing to green hills and valleys. We stop suddenly at a tiny township called Jining where we glimpsed our first view of The Great Wall of China. This was just so unexpected for those of us who weren't reading our Travel Guides - we had about 15 minutes notice and there "it" was .... JUST GREAT!

Of course, not being fully briefed we didn't know that the Wall stretches 7200km from the Bo Sea (God knows where that is) to the Gobi Desert in the east -- and here we were at the beginning of the Wall. According to my guide which I now have in front my me in Sydney the "original" wall was build by Emperor Shihuang (221-207BC) to keep out the marauding nomads of the north. Pretty much the route that our train was taking into Beijing.




There was a view of the Wall at every corner

The Train Follows the Wall all the way to Beijing

From Jining the terrain became increasingly mountainous and the scenery quite dramatic. We were kept busy rushing from window-to-window to get the best view - eventually we managed to get the "Steward in Charge" to open as many windows as he could .... according to all our information this was very unusual.

At one stage the train acquired a banking engine to help it travel up, up, up through the next stage which was a series of tunnels cutting through the mountains.

This photo gives you an idea of the landscape and a view of Wall as it travels across the landscape.




This pic says it all, really!

Train Spotters .... Part 1

This is a pic of the Banking Engine which pushes the Trans Mongolian through 30km of mountainous terrain and numerous tunnels.

You've got to be impressed that I actually took a photo of this phenomenon!

While I'm at it, I thought I would include a pic of the original "phenomenon" - OUR first locomotive on the TransSib.




Our first loco on The Trans Siberian Railway!

Train Spotters .... Part 2

This pic is a bit late in the narrative - you're lucky I've included it as the train wasn't travelling around a corner at the time.


Previous
U.B.TO THE CHINESE BORDER
Next
BEIJING, GREAT WALL & FORBIDDEN CITY - at last!
  Karen G - Bio and Journals
  RUSSIA, MONGOLIA, CHINA - 8,000kms BY RAIL - Intro Average Rating of 14 Viewers
Chapters of RUSSIA, MONGOLIA, CHINA - 8,000kms BY RAIL
  ST PETERSBURG
  MOSCOW
  MOSCOW TO IRKUTSK on the Trans Siberian Railway
  SIBERIA
  IRKUTSK and Lake Baikal
  CROSSING INTO MONGOLIA
  MONGOLIA - WHAT A SURPRISE!
  U.B.TO THE CHINESE BORDER
  ON OUR WAY TO BEIJING
  BEIJING, GREAT WALL & FORBIDDEN CITY - at last!

       

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