Fuddland | Archives | 2006 | 05 | 17

At the Russian border

Our initial attempt to visit the border with Russia ended in partial failure: we were indeed taken to a border crossing by a taxi driver, but it was the purely functional one for immigration and import/export purposes — entirely uninteresting, tourist-wise. However, it was here, whilst trying to find a ride back to town, that we met the driver who would become our tour guide for the next couple of days, and after visiting Dalai Lake we took a short trip out to the built-for-tourists border crossing point.

Panoramic view of Russia from the obversation tower in Manzhouli: brown fields and traintracks and little else

An abstract sculpture near the Chinese border with Russia

Looking down on the cordoned-off area of no man's land between Russia and China, tourists gather near the small monument marking the area

The uninspired concrete building from which you can gaze into Russia

A sign warns people not to enter the limbo between the two lands

As far as I could tell, one couldn’t actually travel between China and Russia here, unless you were driving a train lugging timber from one country to the other, but there was an observation point and complete with binoculars to gaze out over “no man’s land” and Russia beyond.

Whilst we were having a gander, some Chinese visitors decided that it was much more interesting to have their photos taken with foreigners than look at the entirely different country yonder, so we were subjected to a mini photoshoot as various children were thrust beside us and our bemused smiles captured for posterity. Once that was over, we were able to wander out into the designated area in limbo, under the watchful eye of a nearby guard — but he was soon comandeered by our driver into taking photos of us all; from the confused glances he kept throwing his colleagues, I’m fairly sure this wasn’t an everyday occurrence [particularly the part where our driver manhandled me over the chains, where I clearly wasn’t supposed to go, and commanded the guard to take more photos, ignoring his half-hearted protests].

In: Photos / Flickr & China / Travelling in China / Manzhouli & Photos / Sinophotos

2006 / 05 / 17 – 13:34

Comments

#1

Kav | 2006 / 05 / 17 – 17:24

particularly the part where our driver manhandled me over the chains, where I clearly wasn’t supposed to go, and commanded the guard to take more photos, ignoring his half-hearted protests
he was telling the guard to shoot you, it was just lucky the chap was holding a camera and misunderstood.

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