We started our journey in Beijing main train station on the 20th of december 2008 at 22h56.
We arrived at the station at about 22h15. As usual, we first had our luggage checked through the annoying x-ray. For those who don't know china, the train stations are comparable to airports; all luggage are checked through an x-ray but, I have to say, in a train station it can be a bit annoying compare to airports cause your luggage are checked and that's it; easy. At the train station it's a bit chaotic. It seems the Chinese government is scared of its own people!!! I wonder why?Anyway, after this we went to the platform where the train was waiting "for us". We headed to car number 14, which was our car number, where we got welcomed by a Russian woman in her 30's. I don't really know, if it's because we see Russian people as cold by nature or, because it was actually a bit chilly but, her welcome was not really one of the warmest one ever. She got a little "warmer" after the departure.
To our delightment, the train was really nice. Inside, the compartment had a really good set up. It was spacious (it's still a train though) in the seating position, and really easy to change to the sleeping one. In 4 moves, you can change the all thing from seating to sleeping. The bed are also very comfortable. The train we took seemed to be new and was really clean. Everyday, a hostess goes through the whole car as well as the compartments, for a little cleaning.We were sharing our compartment with a middle aged Russian man, with whom we tried to have a chat but, unfortunately, there was no much way to communicate with this gentleman cause would couldn't speak Russian or German and, he couldn't speak English, French or Chinese (my wife is Chinese).
The trip itself is really enjoyable. The only things you do is eating, drinking and chilling out. For some, it may seem boring though; bring a book then, it's perfect. Beside the eating, drinking and reading you can also have a look from the window to check the country side. For the Chinese side, it's a lot of agricultural fields, rivers, towns and cities in expention. We all know china is a booming country but, when you see those towns and cities in expention, it really make more sens; it's quite impressive how quick things are changing. Before enjoying the Russian side you will first have to go through the border. The Chinese one is easy. You don't have to leave the train, they come in to check all the travel documents. For the Russian one it's a different story.They first check your travel documents in the train then, there is a first person asking to open your luggage to have a look at and then there's a dog going through all the compartments.
After all of this, we had to get out of the train for them to be able to change the wheels, since the 2 railways are not the same. It took about 4 hours, they tried if everything was working properly and we left. The Russian country side was nice to have a look at. We saw rivers, forests and little villages all covered by snow. The highlight was the lake Baikal. It's really a beautiful lake. It's so huge we could think it's the sea. The shores were covered with ice and snow which gave a great look. After a long travel along Lake Baikal we arrived at Irkutsk at around 18:30.
