Back from a short trip to see Ghengis Kahn’s 成吉思汗 hometown, was interesting but not a place I would travel to again. There just isn’t anything left of what used to be here and it’s just very hard to imagine what things would have been like many years ago when this was the centre of one of the most expansive empires there ever was.

The buildings that were once here have gone, there is now a temple built in its place, and to be direct, once you’ve seen a temple you’ve seen them all. The town itself, 呼兰浩特 Helanhete, could be any small Chinese city. Non descript, bland and like a thousand other places in China- bereft of any originality. Also couldn’t find any Mongolian food and compared to Changchun prices were a little more than expected. At least I can say I’ve to Mongolia, allbeit Inner Mongolia which is now part of the PRC of course.
If I could use one word to describe things I would say ‘neglected’.

Compared to Changchun this part of China is desperately poor, a forgotten region in many respects, like stepping back a few years. Very few private cars on the roads, lots and lots of bicycles and taxis.
In terms of culture and surroundings the only real difference is seeing all the road signs and shop signs in Mongolian and Mandarin. The place has, for all intents and purposes, been assimilated into China, and this is a testament to the success of Han migration or colonization depending upon how you see things.

One thing is that there were very few laowai there, got so many stares, a little like being a minor celebrity. Quite intimidating and at times annoying, though I never felt any hostility like I have in other places. I’ve found that the more out there the place is the more friendly the people tend to be.

Took a bus back accross into the neighbouring province of Heilongjiang, this bus took about 5 hours to do journey that could have been done in 2 as it went town to town, along dirt tracks, picking up passers-by. This really gave a good insight as to how many of the people live here, so many towns cut off from anywhere, no tarmaced roads, people living in mud huts.
The only way you could tell if you were getting into Heilongjiang was by the many text messages telling you ‘welcome to heilongjiang’ as the bus zig-zagged back and forth along the provincial border.

It never ceases to amaze me where you can get a mobile phone signal in China, It seems almost everywhere is covered (the advantages of not worrying about restrictive planning laws) – they even put a mast on Everest!

Everybody has a mobile phone here, It’s probably the only thing both peasants and businesmen have in common. As it happens, the only place I know if where I can’t get a signal is in my apartment! If I leave my phone anywhere but on the bedroom window I am 100% incommunicado!! 🙁 I often never get messages, or they’ll arrive days late, infact if I want to call somebody, I have to go outside to make the call!

Came back via Qiqihaer 齐齐哈尔，a city similar in size to Changchun but years behind development wise. It’s very much a working city, people making a living, people walking with a purpose that I haven’t seen for a while.
Sadly a shadow of its former self （once upon a time this was the first settlement in north east China), I think now, the smaller provincial capital of Haerbin attracts most of the investment In this part of the province. The biggest industries here are mining and petrochemicals so its very much an industrial city, unlike the towns nearer to Russia, Qiqihaer doesn’t have the advantages of wealth generated from cross-border trade . There are some interesting old buildings left from the Japanese period including part of the train station that’s now decorated with good old fashioned Communist propaganda.- I very much doubt the building will last 10 more years but it will probably outlive Mao Zidong thought!

Though, I think this is probably a good place to invest for the future. There are I’m sure untapped markets, things which in Changchun have already been done.

It’s sad when you start to judge a cities economic development on whether it has a KFC or not, but nevertheless, It’s quite a good indicator of where things stand in regard to exposure to western ideas, and more importantly somewhere to go to the toliet!

Being China though, the economics dont really make much sense following western models. Infact things were more expensive to buy here, food cost more, yet the average wage is probably half that of Changchun. In China cities often vary in living costs, and the salaries may or may not correspond. i。e。 Dalian is the most developed city in the north east, yet the salaries are similar to Changchun, there has to be a place that can offer the best of both worlds – good environment and good job prospects ❓

Had fun seeing this translation for an emergency exit at a train station,
It’s obviously been translated by somebody with little or no knowldge of the English language. So in this context it should be 应急=EMERGENCY 出口＝EXIT　but it’s a funny translation regardless, made me laugh.
Coming back got on possibly the best train I’ve ever been on in China, quick, quite, safe, comfortable and not too hot. I’ve found that up here in dongbei many of the trains are the offcasts from the rest of China, the ones nobody else wants. I was told by a friend in the train business that the cast-offs from Beijing, Shanghai etc all end up here, despite this being the region where the new trains are actually manufactured. Dongbei gets a rough deal from the rest of China, it produces so much but gets so little in return…..

Work wise almost there, by the end of next week I’m done. But I’ve been really busy this week with other projects that have come up, and trying to sort out jobs. Hopefully will have time to do some more travelling in a few weeks, plan to see yanbian, and check out the easteren part of heilongjiang – especially some of the border towns and an underground forest.
Won’t work beyond the final pay day as, unsurprisingly, I have some unresolved pay issues with this uni. 🙁 Will write more about this in later posts.

Time for bed.