Russian Doll Park

This part of China was very close to Russia. Here is a photo of a park near the border, just outside of Man Zhou Li, still in Inner Mongolia. A pseudo-Russian city, lots of Chinese tourists, some Russian businessmen, and a Russian-doll themed park are all on the Chinese side of the border. It was unclear whether the Russian dolls (ranging in decoration motif from traditional Russian to Disney to Jesus Christ) were meant to welcome Russian tourists into China, or whether they were meant to provide Chinese tourists with a taste of Russian culture. Either way, I'm not entirely convinced that the park served either of these possible goals.

On the northern side, there is nothing in sight but open grass fields. As far as I can gather from google maps, we were several hundred miles from Irkutsk, a territory notable in my mind only for its inclusion in the game “Risk”.

The Chinese side of the border, again, was well-populated with visitors and included a Communist party history museum. For half a kuai, visitors could use the WC, and for half a kuai more, they can obtain several sheets of TP. The Chinese crossing featured a very large, inverted “U” shaped structure that crossed over the railroad tracks leading into Russia (see top photo). It would appear that the Chinese were trying to outdo the Russian version of this building (see lower photo).

Because most Chinese don’t readily have the opportunity or interest in traveling abroad, visiting national border crossings is fairly popular. I had a nice chat with one of the security guards at the gift shop. He warned against visiting Russia – a place, in his mind, of disorder where people could go around shooting guns willy-nilly and breaking laws. One of my classmates in the program, who had spent a lot of time in Russia, agreed with him on that point.

Another night on the train brought us back safely to Harbin. Our normal Monday morning classes were postponed to the afternoon, and everyone enjoyed some necessary recuperation.