"The Trans-Siberian Railway"

< u>11th December (Day Six)

Before the railway was built, there was only one way for the convicts, on their way to the labour camps, the colonists and adventurers to cross this region, and that was along a rough road known as the Post Road or Tract. Posting stations were set up along the route at twenty five mile intervals and it was here that travellers could rent horses and drivers and, depending on the season, they would have a horse drawn carriage or a sledge. But for the convicts on their way to the forced labour camps of Siberia it meant they had to endure an extremely punishing march of almost three months to cover the one thousand or so miles over the Ural Mountains to the squalid and overcrowded salt mines and labour camps around Irkutsk in Siberia.

By the year 1900, over one million people had been exiled and had made the long journey to the so called ’salt mines’, whereas actually they were mining gold, silver and copper rather than salt. It was when the government discovered the extent of the minerals deposits within Siberia that it conceived a way to extract them from the ground, and the exiled criminals was the obvious answer. In fact the range of crimes where exile was the punishment was extended to include desertion, assault and even vagrancy (when the vagrant was of no use to the army or the community!). It was also the punishment for offences that now would appear to be ridiculous, these included Snuff-Taking, Fortune Telling, and Prize Fighting. By the late 18th century the demand for workers in the mines was so great that the list was extended again, this time to include drunkenness, wife beating, cutting down of trees, begging and even setting fire to property accidentally! No attention was given to the treatment of the exiles on route, they were simply herded along like animals and many died along the way.

In 1891 the Russians made the decision to build the railway and on the 31st May 1891 Tsar Nicholas I, laid the foundation stone and the work began and continued for fourteen years until 1901, when the East Chinese section was completed linking Russia with China. The main labour force was made up fromthe convicts in exile, however a large number of workers were also imported from as far away as Italy and Turkey while Chinese ’Coolies’ worked on East Chinese section. The railway was built mainly without mechanical help by men with nothing more than wooden shovels but even then, on a good day, they would lay up to two and a half miles of track per day. The convicts were actually paid for their work at a rate of twenty five Kopecks per day and they also had their sentences reduced. The track had been laid using the cheapest materials possible and taking the cheapest route, which is why there are so many twists and turns, this was to avoid expensive bridges and tunnelling. When the first trains started to travel on the track it soon became obvious that better materials should have been used as the tracks started to buckle and twist almost immediately under the weight. Trains were kept to a maximum speed of thirteen miles per hour and even then there was frequent derailments. Finally in 1899 one hundred million Roubles were allocated to a massive rebuilding programme which, if the correct materials had been used in the first place, would not have been necessary.

This rebuilding programme lasted until 1916 when, at the river Amur at Khabaovsk, the last bridge was built finally linking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, four thousand six hundred and eight miles away at a cost of one thousand million Roubles (including the East Chinese section) making it by far the longest railway in the world.

By 1.15 am we had all settled in and although no one had really unpacked anything, we were all thinking of getting some sleep. Martin and I left the compartment while the girls got ready for bed, something that was to become a nightly ritual, then, with the blinds down and curtains drawn we eventually got off to sleep, although the rocking and swaying of the train did not help a great deal! With contemplations of the journey that was to lie ahead of me, I had a pleasant feeling that this was going to be a very, very, good experience. We were awake and out of bed by 9.15am after the train had travelled approximately seven hundred kilometres through the night. All along the track there were Kilometre posts so that we could plot our progress using the Trans-Siberian handbook that I had with me. In the book was the distance in kilometres and the timetable of the train, so using the time and the distance travelled, I was able to estimate (fairly accurately) when and where the train would stop and for how long, thus giving us time to get dressed into our winter clothes and get off the train at the various stops to take pictures or buy goods from the Russians.  The train that I had booked was the Chinese train which, according to everything that I had read, was supposed to be a lot more advanced and generally better than the Russian train. If my journey from England to Moscow was anything to go by, this was like the Orient Express! Each compartment had four beds, two of them folded up during the day while the other two were used to sit on by everyone in the carriage. There was a table under the window between the  lower beds/seats and some storage space above the door and under the lower seats. One thing that was nice was that when the door was shut with the blind on the window pulled down and the curtains drawn, the compartment was in total darkness helping us to sleep very well. The dining car was actually Russian, that is until the Mongolian border where was changed to a Mongolian dining car, well that was until it reached the Chinese border when, you guessed it, it was be changed for a Chinese dining car which was all a bit confusing to say the least. The dining car was actually about twenty carriages away and, due to the design of the carriages we had to dress to visit it as if we were dressing to get off the train, with thick coat, boots and gloves! The corridor that runs the length of the car was lovely and warm and was heated by its own central heating system which ran on coal placed into a boiler at one end of the carriage. At each end of the carriage was a toilet and a wash room with three sinks but no shower, so it would be good to get to Beijing if only to get clean again! After the wash rooms was another door which gave access to the doors to get off the train at the stations, one to the right and one to the left. Straight ahead was the door that linked the two carriages. When the train was moving it became quite an experience trying to cross the gap, especially in the heart of Siberia when a near blizzard would come up the gap between the couplings blowing snow up into my face.

The train continued, making frequent stops along the way. There were always Russian entrepreneurs ready to sell us various items for what appeared to be bargain prices, of course they all want hard currency so it was just as well I had $US with me to get the bargains. I purchased three bottles of vodka for $6.00 and an even better bargain, a Russian army telescope for just $3.00. This made me realise I had been overcharged for the vodka, never mind I would have to barter harder next time!

The crowd on the train in my carriage were a really mixed bunch with two ’Aussies’, four swedes, four Spanish, one Finnish guy, one Swiss German girl, two English (including me) and one Irish guy and they were all really nice people to talk to and get along with. One thing that we had not realised was that Paul the Russian guide would be with us until the Mongolian border, we thought this must have been a rule from the early days of communism. It was Pauls job to make sure we went all the way.

The guide book I had with me was very good as it told us what to look out for along the route, pointing out when we might see a spectacular view or a rail siding full of ’moth balled’ steam engines, ready to be brought back into service in the event of a war or similar event.

As the day went on and it started to get dark, we began to wind our way up into the Urals which is a range of mountains that separate Europe from Asia, not the highest mountains in the world but still impressive. At one thousand and thirty three kilometres we crossed the massive Kama River which is one of the great waterways of the Soviet Union and flows for more than two thousand kilometres from the Ural mountains to the Volga.

After we had eaten dinner we all returned to the compartments for the evening. It turned out to be one massive party and my compartment was invaded by the Swedes who were "drunk as skunks". It was a great evening as we were all breaking the ice and getting to know one another better.

12th December (Day Seven)

After finishing a bottle of vodka last night I woke up with a bad hangover, I was starting to wonder if it was genuine vodka of a concoction of chemicals that taste similar? Any way I lived to tell the tale. I thought that I would be able to write more letters home during the day, however it has to be said that although we were slowly getting used to it, the ride of the train was far from smooth making legible hand writing next to impossible. The days appeared to fly by with everyone in and out of each others compartments. We had lots to talk about regarding previous travels that everyone had embarked upon. One of the girls from Sweden was particularly interesting as she was a freelance reporter for Swedish Newspapers, and travelled the world for many months at a time writing various stories about her adventures. In her back-pack she carried a small lap top computer which had a modem built into it, this was so she could send home the stories via the telephone lines. Her name was Åsa (pronounced oorsa) she was travelling with a fellow reporter called Holken, who was the person that usually receives her reports and then edits them if necessary. Some of the stories that she had to tell were quite remarkable and sometimes almost unbelievable. She has spent a lot of time in the jungles of Peru in South America and had lived a very simple life in mud huts while she was there, it was very interesting to learn about her adventures.

Around mid to late afternoon, Åsa tried to teach me how to play Backgammon and, without too much effort she beat me two games to one, (I think she let me win). She also had a guitar with her and it was good to have a singsong in the evening with her playing, it certainly made the Russians and the Chinese look when they passed through our carriage. At one thousand eight hundred and thirteen kilometres we arrived at the largest city in the Urals called Sverlovsk where the train stopped for a while to change the engine. The railway reached the town in 1878 bringing the foreign travellers on their way to Siberia. It was in May 1960 that Sverdlovsk became the focus of world attention when an American U-2 pilot Gary Powers, was shot down over the area while on a mission flying from Pakistan to Norway to take pictures over the area. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for spying but was later released in 1962 when the two countries exchanged spies that they were holding.

Sverlovsk is now one of the most important industrial cities in the USSR and more than one million two hundred and fifty thousand people live there. There are many industries there including chemical manufacturing as well as cutting and setting of gem stones. The cities most famous citizen is Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation and well known for his clashes with Gorbachev, who until two days previous had been the president of the USSR Just who was in control at that time we were not too sure about, although Paul the Russian guide said he was not very happy about the situation as he did not know when he would be paid or even if he would be paid due to the political upheaval the country was going through.

For the seventy or so kilometres that the train travels as it leaves the city, it winds down and out of the Urals to the Great Siberian Plain. We were now in Asia but not quite in Siberia just yet, although the temperature outside was -18ºC. We must be close!

13th December (Day Eight)

I woke up with an almighty hangover again only this time I was sick, so that helped me make the decision to take it easy on the drink from now on. Last night we were off the train singing Beatle songs to the astounded people of the cities where the train stopped. I think it is all very strange for them to see Westerners behaving in this way, but I do not think it did any harm.

At two thousand and seventy eight kilometres Siberia starts here! This is the frontier between Sverlovskaya and Tyumenskaya and the region comprises four hundred and thirty thousand square kilometres of flat land with tundra to the north. South of the line is the place where the Great Post Road crossed Siberia’s frontier and is marked with a square pillar about twelve feet in height and it was at this point that hundreds of thousands, may be even millions of exiles said goodbye to their loved ones for the last time, as they could not travel any further than this point with them. Until recently the pillar was covered with brief inscriptions and good-byes of the exiles, however today there is nothing to show that many hundreds and thousands of people had passed by on their way to the labour camps. 

It was an interesting (day once the hangover had gone) and Paul, the guide, told us about Russia as he sees it, which was educational. He did not want to talk about it too much, or at least not about the bad things, I got the impression that his job was to paint a good picture of Russia at all times. He said that the Russians were fed up with the food queues and the general shortage of everything else but as long as things started to improve they did not care who was in power.Paul would be getting off the train the next day at Irkusk so he told me if I wanted to have any mail posted on, he would do it for me, so most of the day was spent writing letters to Michelle. It has been over a week since we last communicated and I did not like the feeling of being so isolated from her, unable to talk to her or touch her.

For the rest of the day the train passed through various industrial areas and mining towns, still making progress East towards the biggest fresh water lake in the World, Lake Baikal. The restaurant car was at least twenty carriages away and it was there at dinner times, that we all got together, Paul instructed us to put our clocks forward one hour every night. So as soon as dinner had finished, which was probably 8.30pm, we turned our clocks forward to 9.30pm and we were soon ready for another party! Most of us were looking forward to be getting rid of the Russian dining car at the Mongolian border as the food to date had not been too enjoyable, things could only improve! One day on entering the dining car, I tried to push the door open but found it to be stuck. I managed to get my head around to see why it would not open and to my astonishment there was a dead sheep on the floor the other side!! I assumed that this was dinner.

On the way to the dining car it was interesting to look into the other compartments to see just how everyone else was coping with the journey. There was a lot of Chinese (on their way home, I assumed) and I could not believe the amount of luggage they had with them. Some of the compartments were so overcrowded with large boxes, huge suitcases and just about anything else they could stuff in, it was difficult to see just where they slept at night. Most would not have their meals in the dining car, that privilege was reserved for the ’lucky ones’, so on the way to dinner there were amazing smells coming from the various compartments, most had small gas operated camping stoves to cook on. I thought their food looked better than mine!

14th December (Day Nine)

Paul left the train today at Irkutsk to make his way back to Moscow, he was feeling quite apprehensive as he had no idea if he would have a job when he returned. He had taken a letter to post to Michelle for me as I would still be on the train for another four days, and the longer the time that I’m unable to communicate with Michelle, the worse that I feel.

We were now five thousand kilometres from Moscow, departing Irkutsk travelling in the direction of Ulan Unde where our train would leave the main East/West route to the ports at Nakhodka where the ships leave for Japan. We would continue south through Mongolia and on to China.

The train climbed high into the mountains most of the morning before giving magnificent views over Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. Some of the best views on the trip were at this point as the track wound down through a series of tunnels with ’Swiss style’ horse-shoe bends before reaching the lake side where the track went right to the shoreline.

Lake Baikal lies four hundred and fifty metres above sea level and It measures one thousand and twenty meters in it’s deepest part and the width varies from twenty four kilometres to eighty kilometres. Altogether there are one thousand seven hundred different types of plants and animals found in Lake Baikal, and of these more than one thousand cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Another characteristic is that it’s possible to see down to a depth of forty metres.

Until 1904, passengers on the Trans-Siberian Railway crossed the lake on ferries, which were built in England and transported to Lake Baikal and assembled on site. The ferries were also ice breakers to cope with the severe frost of the winter months, however, in Mid-Winter the ferries often could not break through the ice and in Summer, they were often delayed in port because of the terrible storms that frequent the region. It was for those reasons that it was decided to build this section of track despite the enormous problems which they had to overcome. Ten thousand labourers worked on this section hacking out embankments alongside the lake and excavating seven kilometres of tunnels and building more than two hundred bridges. Because the terrain was essentially one long cliff, the labour gangs could only reach the majority of the work site from boats on the lake making construction of this section the most difficult part of the entire railway.

For most of the day we were actually alongside the lake, or never far from it. Looking out of the window it appeared just like a huge ocean with waves being whipped up by the winds causing frozen waves to form on the lake edge. One of the Spaniards in the next compartment had a thermometer, and all along the journey we dangled it out of the windows to measure the temperature drop which now is at the lowest reading yet, -32°C. In fact it became so cold that most of the windows froze up (because of the moisture in the air from the lake), virtually none of the windows would open at all! In the late afternoon we arrived at Ulan Unde at five thousand six hundred and forty two kilometres from Moscow. It was here that my train would leave the main route of the Trans-Siberian railway and turn south for the Trans-Mongolian section that would get me to China.

The train stopped at Ulan Unde for quite a while so we had a chance to stretch our legs and look around the station and stock up on any food being sold on the platform, usually bread and very basic provisions. Once the train left Ulan Unde, at around eight kilometres to the East it swung to the south, which, for me, was a very significant move as I was now on my way to the Peoples Republic Of China, on the part of the route called the Trans-Mongolian line.

< u>The Trans-Mongolian Line.

This route to China is an ancient one, followed by the tea caravans between Peking and Moscow. Travelling with out a stop, foreigners could manage the journey in forty days. Until the middle of the present century the rough track over the Steppe-lands of northern Mongolia and the Gobi dessert in the south was the only route across this desolate country.

In 1940 a branch line was built between Ulan Unde and Naushki on the border with Mongolia, then after the Second World War, work began on the next section reaching the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator in 1949.

The line between there and Beijing was started in 1953, and by 1956, with all the work complete, a regular service was started from Ulan Unde to Beijing. From the point where we turned south, it took five and a half hours to cover the two hundred and fifty kilometres to the Soviet-Mongolian border where the train stopped for more than three hours for the custom inspections to take place. First the Russian guards came through the compartments checking under seats and on top of door ways (for anyone trying to flee the country), then they checked for any Russian Roubles that one might be trying to smuggle out of the country. There was form after form to complete which, with our Passports, were taken away for further scrutiny. When the Russians had finished with us, it was the turn of the Mongolians to do their inspections to see if there were any stowaways on board.

We arrived at 10.30pm, and by 2.30 am we were still at the border, just why things had taken so long no one knew, we were so fed up and tired we all went to bed!

Mongolia

This is a very sparsely populated country with an area approximately the size of Western Europe. Living there are just over two million people, fifty percent of whom are under the age of twenty five years old.The terrain of the country is quite varied with vast plains to the East the Gobi dessert to the South, while the West has snow capped mountains and enormous forests.

For many hundreds of years the desserts and plains have been inhabited by nomadic herders living in felt tents (yurts). The most famous leader of the Mongolian people lived in the 13th century, his name was Gengis Khan.

It was 10.00am before we were up and out of bed which meant that we had missed breakfast. The dining car we had was Russian and would not be changed until we arrived at the Capital, Ulan Bator. The journey from the border to Ulan Bator took about eight hours to complete, and we arrived at 10.30am so it was cameras at the ready to have a quick look at Mongolia. The first impressions were good as the people all appeared to be friendly and smiling, their clothes were brightly coloured and it made a change from the dreariness of the Russian people. It was immediately obvious that the Mongols are a happier race!

The Mongolian dining car was attached here which was something everybody had been looking forward to. We envisaged the the food had to be better than that which the Russians had offered us. however, I was very surprised to see two large sides of meat sitting on the platform bench completely uncovered. I then watched as they ware loaded into the dining car which had been shunted into place amongst the carriages. I suppose this is quite normal to the Mongolians and something that I will have to get used to.

Ulan Bator at six thousand three hundred and four kilometres from Moscow, is the coldest capital city in the world but I think it would be a great place to visit properly if I only had the time. Unfortunately, all too soon, we were back on board and under way once more.

By 3.00pm we were well into the Gobi dessert which extends one thousand kilometres North to South and two thousand four hundred kilometres West to East. I expected to see nothing but sand, however, the area that the railway crossed was mainly grassy steppes. It was still a very beautiful place with snow covered mountains as a back drop and the occasional Mongolian herdsman on horse back, or on the back of a camel. We saw herds of camels roaming the dessert which is something quite extraordinary. Every day I have seen something that will leave a lasting impression in my mind, and very often it is hard to put into words but it was fantastic to have had this experienced.

For the rest of the day we travelled south towards the border with China where the Bogies on the train had to be changed once more to the normal gauge adopted by the rest of the world.

16th December (Day Eleven)

Once we had all woken and had eaten some breakfast, it was time to pack our back-packs once more and get ready for the arrival of the train into Beijing which should have been at around 4.00pm in the afternoon, however, the train was running behind schedule so it was going to be much later than that! 

One of the highlights of the day would be when we arrived at The Great Wall of China. The train actually passes through The Wall and travels alongside it for quite some time. At least that is what the guide book told me.

We arrived at our first stop Datong, which was seven thousand four hundred and eighty three kilometres from Moscow. Until as recently as 1986, they were still building steam engines at the rate of two hundred and forty per year at the works in the city, which made it the last place in the world to be building them. It was a real treat to see the steam engines shunting backwards and forwards with various rolling stock, it was just like being transported back in time. While we were travelling on the train, it was most common to hear the engines as we overtook them, the noise they produce is quite extraordinary and it is so strange to see them as an every day part of life instead of being restored and cared for by enthusiasts as is the case in England.

The train stopped for half an hour but we were about 5 hours behind schedule which meant that when we eventually reached ’the wall’ it would be too dark to see anything let alone take any photographs. For much of the day we continued to prepare ourselves for the imminent arrival into Beijing and we were trying to decide where to stay. Suddenly, Per, one of the Dutch lads came in and told us of a woman that had got on at Datong and was travelling along the carriage to see if any one wanted to stop at the hotel that she represented. At first I was apprehensive and thought that she might entice me to the hotel and then double the charge once I had arrived, but I was soon to find out I could not have been more wrong. Eventually she came into our compartment and showed us a colour brochure which looked quite nice, her English was very good and she appeared very genuine. We decided to except her offer and she told us there would also be free transport to the hotel, what more could we ask for? I have to say I think that the hotel managers were very astute to target the back-packers in this way as they certainly got most of us to stay at the hotel. The most amazing thing about it all was the price. We were going to have a shared room and the cost was to be one hundred and eighty Yuan or in English money, £1.80p!

Once the accommodation was sorted, we sat back to wait for our first glimpse of the wall but as we suspected it was just too dark to see anything as we passed through it at seven thousand six hundred and sixty one kilometres. We were all very disappointed that we would not see it as we had all been looking forward to it so much over the past week, but it was just one of those things. At seven thousand seven hundred and seventy one kilometres the train stopped to have a banking engine fitted as the ascent up through the Great Wall is very steep. Then the long slow climb started, and our next stop was at Badaling. This is the first of the stations for the Great Wall and it will be to this station that I must come to visit the ’wall’ properly. After the station there was a two kilometre tunnel through the wall and onto the next station, Qinglongqiao.  

The journey was very slow at this part and everyone was getting very restless knowing that we were almost there, our bags were all packed and we were just sitting there waiting. The train left Qinglongqiao and reversed backwards down a very steep incline and through a spectacular series of tunnels, the progress was very, very slow because of the severe bends and the need for continuous braking. It was possible to get off and walk along side the train, that is how slow it was travelling! We had to make one more stop at Juyongguan to check the brakes and then again ten kilometres later where the second engine was detached at Nankou, and at this point we were just fifty three kilometres from Beijing. Once we were under way the train sped off across the plains that surround the capital and we were almost there.

8.10pm We pulled in to Beijing railway station and I had done it! Seven Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty Five kilometres from Moscow on the longest continuous railway line in the world.

Once we got off the train, it was soon apparent that the strength had gone from my legs and carrying my back-pack was a struggle as my legs just wanted to give way under the weight. In true Chinese style the lady from the hotel held aloft a red flag for every one to follow so that we did not get lost, and she led us out side and to some small mini buses. The hustle and bustle of the station was bewildering, there were thousands of people all going in different directions with the compulsory tea chest or two with which the Chinese travel. Once in the bus we were soon speeding through the streets to the Hotel Longtan reception where we checked in. There were six of us who would share a room, Jo, Åsa, Fredrick, Katrine, Holken and myself. The rest were mostly couples who would have double rooms for privacy. The room was great for £1.80p with six beds and a sitting room area with four lounge chairs and a coffee table with mugs and a large thermos flask full of boiling water for making drinks. The flask was refilled on request by the attendant on each floor. Within one hour of leaving the train I was in the shower which was the first for 6 days!!! It felt absolutely wonderful

We did not do much that evening apart from eat dinner and relax as we were all exhausted and so went to bed quite early. The beds were lovely, very clean with large down filled quilts instead of blankets, but we had a problem when we went to bed, we could not get to sleep as we were used to the constant rocking, banging and clanking of the train. The unbroken silence and tranquillity was very strange to us, however, I soon dozed off and it was not long before Katrine was out of bed to wake me up for snoring, I just could not win!

Read Neils complete adventure here.