What a pleasant border crossing!
People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia)
My first impression of China was a positive one, a border town that was clean, friendly and modern, something that i really wasn't expecting. We managed to find a guy who took us to a bank to get some money, then a restaurant where we could wait, until our sleeper bus to Beijing departed.
When the bus arrived, i boarded and the driver gave me a plastic bag, which i presumed was for rubbish. As i stepped foot on to the carpeted areas, his gesticulations made it clear that the bag was for my shoes! Clean buses, another bonus i thought. This theory was soon quashed, as a piece of orange skin flew past my ear to the floor from the bunk above me! Next food on the menu was eggs, which completely stank the bus out, why did these people choose to wait until 5 minutes into the journey to eat? when we had been sat in a restaurant for 2 hours!
As darkness set in and i took my 'sleeping' position, i realised the berths were made for Chinese people (small ones at that), in both width and length. The night was spent trying to get comfortable and dozing in and out of consciousness. Around 4.30am the following day, i awoke and realised we had stopped and the bus was now half empty. I couldn't work out if we were in Beijing or not. It turned out the bus driver was just letting people sleep until they awoke and left the bus of their own accord! Quite a nice gesture, saying it was still pitch black and freezing outside. Stupidly we decided to head into the cold, dark night.
