The Trans-Mongolian Railway

I was wrong about taking the Trans-Siberian--we went on the Trans-Mongolian, which originates in Ulaan Bataar instead of Moscow. The trains are similar though and the route of course is the same. Anyway, travel is so busy in July and August that we couldn't get tickets directly back to Beijing. We ended up taking a local train to the Chinese border town of Erlian and then a sleeper bus to Beijing.

The local train provided some food...which we obviously didn't eat!

The local train left at 8 p.m. and arrived in Erlian at 9 a.m. or so. We slept through the steppes, but we were able to get some photos of the Gobi at sunrise. For the most part, the Gobi in Mongolia has more scrub than sand dunes, but it's still pretty dusty. There wasn't any air conditioning on this train, so the windows were down. The temperature was comfortable, but you can imagine what the train was like in the morning! It got so bad that eventually we closed the window in our cabin.

Sunrise over the Gobi.

Note the tail of the train and all the dust it kicks up!

After going through immigration and customs in Erlian, we headed straight to the bus station and got tickets for a bus leaving at 3 p.m., so we only had 4 hours to kill. One of my least favorite parts of budget traveling is killing time while waiting for the transportation of the next leg of the trip! Luckily, I had my laptop with me, so we watched The Painted Veil, a movie based on a book by W. Somerset Maugham and starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. It was set in 1920s China in an area that's really similar to Yangshuo, so that was kind of fun. Although it's a bit of a downer, it's still a good movie and I definitely recommend it.

Right-hand aisle of the sleeper bus.

Sleeper buses are better than regular buses, but in China they're quite cramped. There are three rows of beds, and I found the bed to be a bit short (and I'm not too tall myself)--poor Joel! We had no idea what time we would arrive in Beijing, but we expected it would be sometime in the morning. Since we were so uncomfortable, we were pleasantly surprised to arrive at 3:30 a.m. After a quick shower to wash the Gobi out of my hair, it was off to bed. Total travel time: 31 hours--the same as the Trans-Mongolian, but it felt twice as long.

Yangshuo

Our first real stop back on the mainland was Yangshuo, a little town plunked in the middle of incredible limestone karst formations.

Rice paddies and limestone peaks.

We rode bicycles among the rice paddies, hiked in the hills, and cruised down the river. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

It might be hard to tell from this picture, but this is the exact spot featured on the back of the 20 yuan bill.

Moon hill.



First, we hiked up to this spot on Moon Hill.

Then we hiked to the top of the moon.

Our guidebook described Yangshuo as a "sleepy but hip village." However, I think it's safe to say sleepy is no longer accurate! Domestic tourism is booming, and the town and even the rice paddies were overrun by tourists and their gigantic tour buses. We had a nice time, but lots more places to go and things to see, so after a couple of days we had no qualms about leaving Yangshuo to the tourist hordes.