Up to the north, Manzhouli

Since we didn’t have any sort of winter in Finland this year at Xmas I’m getting my share of cold in Manzhouli again. It’s about -30 degrees now. But getting to Manzhouli just before the Chinese new year was almost impossible. ALL train tickets AND all plane tickets were sold out. I’ve been trying to get a ticket for 1 week now. I called Hainan Airlines and suddenly they had 1 free seat. I booked it immediately. This was 17.30 on the 16^th and my flight left 7.50 am on the 17^th. That’s a pretty good time gap, yes? Problem is that the plane only goes from Beijing to Manzhouli and I’m in Shanghai. So I got a ticket booked to Beijing the same night at 22.05 and run home to quick-pack and run off to the airport. Plane was late as usually so I arrive at Beijing way after midnight. Luckily there was no taxi que and I arrived in the hotel room about 40 minutes after landing. As I stepped out of the airport I can feel the horrible air of Beijing. It’s seriously SO SO SOOOO bad! You can feel itching in the throat and as it would be hard to catch breath. Only once before was it like this when the sandstorm hit Beijing in 2009 and 2010. I don’t understand how the people cope with it. And how I will after I move here in the near future? Check the picture from the airport in the morning. It has NOT been altered at all. It looks like yellow porridge and it would also feel like suicide to go jogging here. The U.S embassy has an air measuring device on the embassy. 300 stands for bad, 350 for really bad and 400 for poisonous. The readings in the meter at the moment at 500 and that’s its peak level, it does not GO higher than that. I don’t even want to guess how many dangerous particles I inhaled on the short 6 hours I stayed here but “Poisonous” can’t be a very good thing.

The airport at Beijing was totally packed, everybody is going to their hometown when the Chinese new year comes. Few hundread millions of people move withing 1 week. Damn!

But Manzhouli is really fresh! This will already be the 4^th time I come up here to the “middle of nowhere” and hopefully there will be less strange stuff happening at the hotel. Russian food coming up! Love it! That’s probably the best reason to go to Manzhouli, eating at “Masha’s”. That was another 3420 km traveled in 1 day.

The staff gave brought me tea to the room and I was really treated as a king. The parking lot is completely empty and I feel like the only one staying at the hotel.