Day three arrived, and brought with it a new set of adventures! Our goal for the day was to be transported from Harbin to Shanghaijuan, where we would be spending the next few days. However, we were not going to fly there, we would instead take a high-speed train!
The train itself was approximately 30 minutes drive away from the hotel in a coach, but it so happened that it was the same coach we'd been in all the time we'd been there, as driven by "Angry Man", who seemed to honk his horn and get angry at people at any random point depending on the shape of the moon, what your favourite colour was, and whether he'd shouted at the security guard at the gate recently!
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| Some traditional buildings |
There were some nice bits of scenery that we saw along the way, and a few references to Western culture, such as a few McDonalds and KFCs, however these did little to dissuade our attention from Angry Man (TM)'s driving, where we ended up making all the noises used by the "Witch Doctor" in the song of the same name, with the exception of a "walla walla bing bang".
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| An element of Western culture! |
Along the journey we did see a quite noticeable gradient where the jobs went from being tourist based, through to convenience stores and other shops required for day to day living, however these were clearly run-down and provided a stark contrast between the way China tries to treat its tourists, and the way it treats its own public.
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| Nothing is amusing about this shop sign |
Eventually we arrived at the Harbin West Railway station, where we were to board the high speed train. The station itself was very modern, and very large, and almost seemed to be modelled on St Pancras in London, what with the high ceilings, and the way in which it was all laid out. Before entering the terminal we were subjected to airport style security, which led to at least 4 people having their deodorant cans removed from them, at what seemed to be an almost arbitrary scanning system, as some had a large amount of items removed from their luggage, whilst others escaped unscathed! It was later noticed that it was mainly the Devon Boys who had their items removed, this is definitely evidence of a conspiracy, which one group member was keen to point out, as first his shower gel exploded all over his clothes, and then his toiletries were removed!
Eventually, after a surprisingly good McDonalds stop at the station, we boarded the train. 5 hours seems a long time, but the chairs were comfortable, it was a nice temperature, and we all had a reasonably pleasant journey.
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| The journey was pretty tiring! |
We eventually arrived in Shanhaiguan, where we found it to be very different to the tourist-y area of Harbin. After a dinner consisting of octopus, fish, mussels and dumplings, we were free to explore the town around us, during which some of us took some very artistic photographs! However, due to my refusal to bring my laptop, these will have to remain on my camera until we return to the UK!
Today we are going to the CSIC shipyard, which should be interesting to see, and the bus is in about 10 minutes, and so from the Richmond Holiday Inn in Shanhaiguan, this is Harry signing off!
P.S. The bottom of the trees in Harbin were all painted white, which confused the group. It turns out this is lime, and is both anti-bacterial and anti-insectidal, as well as helping to prevent temperature differentials from forming in the hot weather, which could cause the tree to crack and eventually fall over!
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