Narantuul market, or the black market, history goes back to the Soviet era, and is absolutely massive.
The market is largely un-regulated and is known for hosting a lot of counterfeit goods, but also lots and lots of other stuff. Here you will get everything from washers to tshorts, saddles, jewelry and suitcases. Also there is tons and tons of clothes, cloth and shoes….so so so many shoes.
We really did not have anything in particular we where looking for.But we wanted to check out the local boots (not very comfy, sonthat was a pass), Maren was buing a local dress (deek) and Trond really needed new sneakers. After the great wall walk i China, the sneakers had picked up a distinct smell that scared off dogs and made kids cry.. also, the hotellroom got infected, triggering lsd-type dreams and curled up curtains.
The market is really huge, and we got lost after 5 minutes – its impossible to keep an idea of direction. The stalls are divided into zones, show zone, clothes zone and so on. Its really not a lot of knick back and endless stalls of the same stuff,tgmhere is a lot to explore.
I went and checked out saddles and other horse equipment. I cant really bring a saddle back home, but when checking prices it would probably be a nice investment.
We ended up walking around here for 4-5 hours, alleays seeing something new. The market is a sight in itself – even if you are not buying anything, its cool just to walk around and look at stuff.
Got woken up at 0500 by the conductors, everybody off in 30 mins. Now it is time for change of the wheel sets to fit the wider tracks in Mongolia, og narrower – we are unsure. They are different at least.
It was absolutely freezing and windy – it at least felt so that early in the morning, think it was about 10c.
We where met by a bunch of locals selling jeep rides across the border to Mongolia (thats just a couple of kilometers away), food, hotell stays and other tours. We stood around for some minutes until we where pretty much the only ones around…wondering what to do.
Checking googlemaps – or amap as the app is called in China, we found a hotell and a very sleepy receptionist that set us up with a splendid room for only 100cny (140 nok).
The orange part there is the hotell – we are on the third floor. Big bed, European toilet and waterboiler for our ramen. 👍
Really nothing to do until the train leaves at 1645 (we think, it is absolutely impossible to know for sure 🙂 ). But nice to get a few hours sleep until then.
We really really need to stock up on snacks and water – there is none of this on the train.
We arrived in Hohhot after 2,5 hours on the bullet train, arriving at a huge rail station (the new one). And we where met by our travel-company-guy just outside. He had gotten a bit nervous that we would not be able to get from the new station to the old one (10 km), so he had gone and got his car after work – so he could drive us there. What a nice guy! ( He had been to Senja in Norway )
The new station above, the old one below.
We even had a bit of time sampling the local cuisine, a mcdonalds… Nice to have a regular burger again.
So one more security check – all good, no meat scissors. And then just wait for boarding
When we finaly got to walk out on the platform we did feel a bit excited and curious about or seats. There are different options, and we would be fine with most..but sharing a 6 person coupe with plywood beds would not be ideal..
Luckily we had gotten the correct tickets, and ended up in a 4 bed soft sleeper, and probably because the train was not full we got moved to one we could have all for our selves….the luxury!!
Now its 36 hours ride to Ulanbatar, with a 6 hour wait in Erlian where they change the wheel sets on the train. Beds where fine, im not sure SOFT is the word I would use, but at least they where to meters long. No charging in the room, we found one outlet in the hallway that worked.
If we have understood it correctly we should be in Erlian at 0530, there we just have to see what we do during the 5-6 hour wait.
Today we start the travel that will/can/might bring us to Ulan Batar in Mongolia. We have spent months setting up these tickets, transferred money abroad.. 20 emails, so lets see how this will work out in the end.
The bullet train (speed just below 300 kmt) leaves from Beijing North railway station, and because of luggage we went with a taxi this time around.
Its a fairly nice station, with the bullet train gates at the ground floor. First thing we learned is that the security checking here is a bit more strickt than we where used to. So our supernice meatscissors from Korea is now in the property of a very nice girls in the security check… The scissors where 3-4 cm to long. Our bags are absolutely stuffed – 23-25 kg each (We actually bought a new suitcase some days ago, the old one was to small), so repacking and getting out the scissors was an absolute joy! 🙂
Our tickets are attached to our passport numbers, so we should now be golden. Hanging out at Gate 7 – for the 16:50 to Hohhot, where we probably/will/might get our international tickets to Mongolia… On either coach, second, first or some other option..we dont know 🙂
Its one of those places where its really hard to capture the scene in a picture You feel engulfed in the place – with all the massive buildings on all sides. History going back hundred of years.
We have two booked tours, great wall and forbidden city – our wall trip got moved to another date, it was supposed to be today. So looking for something to do – the internet recommended a walk in the park, since the weather is sunny and warm.
Its a bit tricky figuring out what sights needs tickets and not. And if they need ticket – can you just show up or do you have to book 1 month in advance. For the parks it was a mix, but luckily no need for prebook of tickets.
Houhai is the northern part of the lake in Beijing centre. Its free for all and shows of some beautiful spots as you walk along the water.
There are botas for rent, people swimming in the water and lots of different shops and street vendors along the way. Not to crowded either, or – it got a bit crowded midday, but not completely crazy.
We hade som great icecream at the end of the first lake, it hade like 5 Michelin guide stickers – so we tried a green one and a yellow one. Great stuff ! 😀 .. The square that was towards the end of the first lake got a bit crowded and crazy, quite touristy. But still – very scenic area, and with the weather at its best behaviour it was still a supernice walk.
We saw a cat with a gold chain, looking very confident and determined.. It will haunt me for a long time. I think it was plotting…..something..
walinkg out of the first park, we come to the Baihai park, this has an entry of 10cyn – thats approx 14 nok.
One of the several sights in this park is the wall of dragons – a huge sculpture supposedly the largest in the world. Both sides had dragons – altso the roof had lots of ornaments.
There where also a small Chinese garden within the park.
The walk is nice, with lots of several hundred year old trees, different flowers and other plants. And of course the great scenic view of the lake. Towards the south west exit there are a few restaurants and Slowboat Brewing has a 3storey taphouse here, so you can enjoy the view with some excellent beers.
There are two routes to take, we did the west side, the other side will give you access to the big temple across the water – along with other buildings and temples. Next time we will have to do that side to – we spent several hours here, it was about 4 km walk with a few stops and sight along the way, so time just flies away.
Today we visited the National Art Museum, for the second time. In China EVERYthing has to be booked, at least the day before. First time we vent here, without booking, we where just sent on our way. Also – you have to bring the passport along with the booking….because of.. because…You need to hade ID to verify… Because!
We got in this time around -bearly, But after three different people checked out passports – we where golden.
Its a huge museum over 5 floors. Mostly paintings and calligraphy stuff – and some statues and video.
We found the fab four represented
Kinda looks like Paul is wearing shoes – the symbolism is sky high. What does the painter know – is Paul the real Painter? And what is the zebra doing our. That late..all alone?
We roamed around here for over two hours, it was a real nice museum, and with Google translate we got to understand a bit more.
I think what we found most interesting was the collection of old (from year 400 BC ish) texts, or sticks.
This was short messages that where sent around between private and military (lots from military) and also general buracrates…
Its surprisingly -cool- to use Google lens and translate these short messages several hundred and hundred of years old.
The messages are all kinds of things..From very formal messages about the inventory of rice or livestock. Who killed who.. People promising to pay a debt, but complain about the long travel to do so..
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We spent a long time hovering over these ancient texts/sticks, it gave a really cool connection to what was going on at the time. A really cool display indeed.
there had to be hundred of sticks in the exhibition.
Not to much on the translation to English, but we do find that Google lens will translate most for us to an understandable thing.
We spent a bit time outside the museum to, looking at the different sculptures and of course had a visit in the museum store.
Might not be a good pic, but that was a metallic tree.
A bit weird thing we noted, in most museums they will usually give you a general date as to when the bit you are looking at, is from. Like..1987.. og ca. 300 BC.. something like that.
in China, or at least here, we did see some of this – but usually just on paintings from 1900-2000. For the rest it seemed that there was an overall understanding as to what dynasty this was related to, so adding a date was not ‘a thing’. Most have heard about the Ming dynasty – but that was one of the last (THE last?), the different exhibitions here was way older.
There was also a lot of space dedicated to calligraphy and art in/with calligraphy. The written language is really beautiful to look at, and there are ‘masters’ of this where they consider the writing art/poetry, thats is the look of the writing, not just the actually words.
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She stood like that for to long.. then she moved around to the other side and went even lower/wider – but she saw me so I did not dear take a picture – I am pretty sure she was some kinda stay-at-home-ninja
