Mongolia to Beijing to Shanghai.

I’m still not up to par—hack! cough!—and will, therefore, take the easy way out with today’s post by offering a few photos taken on my 2011 train trip from Moscow across Siberia to Mongolia, then south to Beijing.
 

 At the Mongolia-China border, we switched from a Russian to a Chinese train. Each of the sleepers was watched over by an attendant, two of whom are seen here. Neither one of these delightful creatures spoke any English, but who cares?
 
8 Chinese room

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Accommodations were Spartan, but neat and clean, and perfectly adequate for the one-night journey to the Chinese capital.
 
4 train to Shanghai
 After leaving the group I had been with since Moscow, I took the new high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai.
 
5 coach interior
 The ride was smooth and we consistently ran at 300 kilometers an hour, sometimes a bit more than that. That’s about 190 mph. (Seriously, as a nation, we should be ashamed of ourselves.)
 
7 Shanghai garden
 Shanghai was wonderful. Crowded, yes, with a population of 29 million, but this tranquil garden is smack in the middle of downtown. Strangely, although it was all around us, you could barely hear the traffic. Would I do it all again? Absolutely!