Left the Harbin Hotel and got a taxi to Harbin West Railway Station, have to be careful as most cities have 3 main railway stations. It was a breeze to check in and find a seat in the waiting room and then on to the train. British Rail could learn something from the Chinese and Russian trains you buy a ticket you get a seat. Was the fast train and it cruised at 304 km/ph did not seem to go that fast a distance of 600 km and did it in 2 hour plus with 4 stops. The train trip it was foggy/misty all the way.
Arrived at the station found a taxi and bought us to our hotel, checked in unfortunately the receptionists don’t speak English, but we are becoming use to this. Penny found some facts about the place and off we walked to the center of town. They have a pedestrians shopping street over a mile longs but we spotted a lot of the High St stores and Asian ones too. I spotted New Balance store so I checked out the price thinking made in China? £100 a pair in a certain sporting wear chain in the UK charge half that??
Got talking to a Chinese businessman and he invited us up to his hotel office he said he owns the hotel and the building. We chatted to him and his wife for half an hour and excused ourselves. We found the food stalls and Penny wanted to try squid on a stick she had 2 and she thoroughly enjoyed them. I was being a bit cautious after the past 2-3 days of the shits. Walking back close to our hotel we ventured into a local restaurant again no English so we picked by pictures and spotting other dishes. The rice was good fresh raw salad veg was good, Penny had meat dumplings and they all went. I selected a dish some people were eating I was thinking it was pork, sorry cold kidneys sliced you could see the red and the white make up of these organs. I did not fancy them after having the shits for past 2-3 days. Penny had a large beer and I a water came to £8.
We have a full day tomorrow seeing the Imperial Palace which is our last day here leave early Monday morning to Beijing and then on to Datong.
Maurice's Travel 