Chapter 946 On the Train: "Seeking Monthly Pass"

Of course, he was not lost in thought because of the scenery outside the window. In fact, he was thinking about something.

After the meeting with the Politburo, his father Fan Heng gave him some advice and talked to him about some of the ideas of the top leaders for a while. Finally, Fan Wubing understood their ideas. Therefore, he also knew that this trip was of great importance. The success or failure of his trip to Russia affected many people’s hearts.

Shen Ying had fallen asleep in the compartment. This time, an Indian passenger plane had just crashed. Both parents were worried, so they did not take a plane, but took a train from Beijing to Moscow. If we shift our gaze from China to the world, then such a railway line will amaze you. From Vladivostok (Vladivostok) on the Pacific coast to Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains, this line is the Trans-Siberian Railway that crosses the Eurasian continent. It is the main transportation artery from Siberia to the Far East in Russia.

When the international train departing from Beijing Station leaves Erenhot and enters Russia via Ulaanbaatar, the rails extending from Mongolia merge with the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the junction is only more than half a day away from the legendary Lake Baikal.

From Beijing to Moscow, flying It only takes seven or eight hours by plane, while the train takes six days and five nights.

If you want to understand the vast territory of Russia, you must take a ride on their train, because Russia's railways are the most distinctive, especially the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is the product of the Tsarist Russia period and is a special yearning for European and American tourists. If you can experience it once, it is really fun.

Russia is a country with a total of 140,000 kilometers of railways. Their plains occupy most of the territory, and the conditions for developing railways can be said to be unique. The 19th century novel "Anna Karenina" begins with the heroine Anna taking a train from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

However, the Russian railway spacing standard is 12 centimeters wider than that of China. Chinese trains can slowly drive into the Russian railway, but not vice versa. Europeans and Americans are I am very interested in the incomparable magnificence of the world's longest Siberian Railway. I will be happy only if I go there myself, just like foreigners have to see the Great Wall of China.

The train departs from Beijing Station, passes through Zhangjiakou South, Datong, Jining South, and arrives at the Chinese border inspection station Erenhot. Here, the passport will be stamped with an exit stamp, and passengers need to fill out the passenger luggage declaration form. At the same time, the rails must be changed because the width of China's rails is different from that of Mongolia and Russia.

The rail change is carried out in the international wheel change warehouse. The train cars are lifted one by one, the Chinese rails are removed, and the Russian rails are replaced. During the whole process, passengers do not need to get off the train and do not feel any vibration.

Because of the track connection and border inspection, the train will stop in Erenhot for about 3,000 hours. At night, the train leaves Erenhot and enters Mongolia, and then stops at the Mongolian border inspection. At the checkpoint, the train will go through the Mongolian entry (transit) visa inspection and goods declaration procedures. The train will arrive in Ulaanbaatar the next afternoon and arrive at the Mongolian border again in the evening for Mongolian exit inspection.

Moscow time is four hours later than Beijing time. After entering Russia, the train will stop at Naroshki on the border to conduct Russian entry visa inspection, fill out goods declaration form and immigration card. The inspection here is more detailed. At this point, the tedious border inspection is finally over, and the train can run on the vast Siberian land.

Passing through Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tyumen Oilfield, entering Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, passing the Ural Mountains, the train officially enters Europe, then passes through Tirmi, Kirov, the ancient capital of Vladimir,

and finally enters Moscow with a population of nine million.

This route passes through three countries, running from north to south across Mongolia, passing through at least fourteen administrative units in Russia (states, republics, autonomous regions, and border regions), passing through the Mongolian Plateau, the Yablonov Mountains on the border between Mongolia and Russia, the world's deepest inland lake, Lake Baikal, the southern part of the Central Siberian Plateau, the southern part of the West Siberian Plain, and entering the East European Plain after crossing the Ural Mountains.

It takes one day for the train to leave China and one day to pass through Mongolia, and the remaining four days are spent running on the vast Russian territory.

Most of the people on international trains are foreign tourists, and a considerable number of the remaining half are dealers from all over the country. Almost all of these people are wearing suits and carrying suitcases, carrying a large number of leather jackets, hiking shoes and sportswear, with nameplates ranging from Adidas to Nike, of course, they are basically fake.

As soon as the train leaves the country, it becomes a mobile truck, and the dealers on the train are all excited. At every stop, local dealers rush up, surround the windows and doors, and respond to each other, with both buying and selling booming.

Since the train entered Mongolia on October 1, it was hooked up to the Soviet dining car and began to use rubles, so the dealers also traded in rubles.

Shen Ying was quite sleepy on the train, so she and her female assistant were sleeping. Fan Wubing was quite fresh about the things on the train, so he walked around to watch the fun.

The public carriage was more lively. Two young couples put two bottles of Erguotou on the small table in front of the window and sold them at a price of 60 rubles. As a result, the dealers were mainly trading on the platform with big and small bags, so only occasionally people came to patronize them. After two or three groups bargained for 50 rubles but failed to make a deal, they finally couldn't hold on and sold it to two Mongolian men with red and black faces for 50 rubles.

The window of the international train is divided into two parts. The upper one is about eight centimeters wide and can be pushed outwards forty-five degrees. The lower one is fixed. They passed the goods through the small window above.

Each compartment of the international train accommodates four people, which is equivalent to the soft sleeper in China. The two young couples lived in the same compartment with a trader. When the train started again, everyone gathered outside to talk about the war situation. The two young couples said that they had also opened a business and took out the fifty yuan and shook it.

As a result, someone immediately laughed at them and said that they were cheated. Then he took the fifty yuan of ruthenium, opened it to show them, and said that it was Mongolian ruthenium, and then took out a fifty ruble from his pocket.

The two young couples had never seen a fifty-yuan ruble before. When they compared them, they found that the two bills were too similar. The size was the same, and the design on the front was the same. There was a side portrait of Lenin on the left and a big word "s" on the right. Only the small characters were Mongolian. The colors are basically the same, all gray-green, and Mongolia seems to be a little grayer.

However, the couple is not short of money, and buying wine is just for fun, so they just laughed and said that they had learned something new, and there was nothing unhappy.

There are air conditioners and TVs in the carriages, and the seats are spacious. The TV plays the classic Soviet movie "Station for Two". When traveling by train in Russia, you must have the mentality of Europeans and Americans, just think of yourself as coming for leisure, just like going to a health resort and staying for a few days. The temperature and hygiene in the carriage will make you feel very comfortable. Even if it is minus 40 degrees outside, it must be above 25 degrees in the carriage, and you can wear a JL short-sleeved shirt.

Smoking is prohibited in all carriages in Russia, but there are special smoking areas. In order to take care of the Islamic people, Russia's public meals are generally beef, so they do not ask each other about their beliefs.

The doors of the carriages are all electric, the toilets are very clean and automated, and the tall female conductor has a good service attitude. Someone bought smoked fish from Lake Baikal and wanted to temporarily store it in their dining car for a few hours. She also agreed happily, but after a while she ran back and said that she knew it was a paid service, and the price was twice the price of smoked fish, so the person said forget it, it would be more cost-effective to eat it directly.

The railway bed in Russia is very poor, the running stability of the train is much worse than that in China, and the speed is even worse. If it were in China, such a long distance would only take two and a half days to reach, but they have no concept of speeding up trains. It was like this 20 or 30 years ago.

Not long ago, a train derailed in the Far East, all caused by the lack of maintenance of the railway bed. Of course, they also have objective reasons, such as their railway line is too long, and there are not so many workers, so they can only make do with it, and most of the railway sleepers are made of wood, and there are relatively few cement ones, which is also one of the reasons.

After waking up the next day after leaving the country, Shen Ying looked out the window with some excitement, expecting to see the endless grassland, but she was immediately disappointed because she did not see the vast grassland, the vast wilderness, the wind blowing the grass and seeing cattle and sheep.

The Mongolian grassland is indeed high and far away at first glance, but there is no green grass. The grass grows sparsely and thinly on the ground, and half of it is withered and yellow. Obviously, this summer is very dry, and the land seems particularly barren and desolate. The train has been running for two or three hours without seeing a tree, a house or a yurt, not to mention the flock of sheep that look like floating white clouds. The scenery is very monotonous along the way.

Before dusk, the train drove into the Russian land. Strangely enough, the scenery in front of me suddenly changed like a magic trick. It was full of lush vegetation. There were lush wormwood on both sides of the railway. A few meters away, there were endless small birch forests along the way. The bushes in the forest were colorful. The trunks of the birch trees on the slope were silvery white, and the leaves were yellow and green. They shimmered in the afterglow of the setting sun. In the distance, the primitive forests were covered with tall and straight trees, and the wildness was rare.

Only one boundary, the scenery of the north and the south was so different. The land in the north was fertile, but the south was like a barren land. Shen Ying couldn't help but sigh to Fan Wubing, God is unfair, favoring one over the other.

"It's not unfair. The mineral resources of Bihui Mongolia will drive people crazy now." Fan Wubing obviously has a different view on this matter.

The scenery on the ground is good, of course, it is pleasing to the eye, but there are treasures underground, which can be exchanged for money.

Before the night fell, the train finally arrived at the shore of Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake. It holds one-fifth of the earth's freshwater, equivalent to the total water storage of the five Great Lakes in North America. It is also the deepest lake in the world, with an average water depth of 730 meters and a maximum depth of 1,620 meters.

Fan Wubing and Shen Ying looked out the window at Lake Baikal in the car. The endless waters were white and vast, like a dream in the coming night. Unfortunately, it was dark in a short while, and nothing could be seen from the window. It is said that the story of Su Wu herding sheep, which has been passed down for thousands of years, happened here, but it was called the North Sea at that time.

After entering Russia, the traders became even busier. It turned out that they were just fighting in Mongolia, which was considered a warm-up before the war. These people basically worked in pairs of at least two people. They sold goods and shouted, and one of them was responsible for collecting money. It seems that most dealers in the north mainly sell leather jackets, while those in the south, such as Wenzhou, mainly sell hiking shoes.

The two young couples were not idle either, and continued to sell illegal Erguotou. Just like last time, they placed two bottles on the small table in front of the window, and marked the price of two bottles at 60 rubles. They were still very high-spirited at the beginning, but after two or three groups, they couldn't hold back anymore. In the end, they sold it to a middle-aged man and woman, who seemed to be a couple, for 50 rubles. The man was very tall, probably two meters tall, and thin. When he paid and picked up the goods, the small window on the train was not difficult for him at all.

At the beginning, they came once and left without bargaining down the price. After a round, they came again. They looked very simple and honest. It was obvious that they wanted to buy it, and the two young couple also wanted to sell it, so they finally made a deal.

When the train started again, everyone gathered in the carriage to chat and talk nonsense. While chatting, the young couple took out the money they had just received and played with it in their hands. The guy who had just seen through the fake ruble shouted at them, "You have been cheated again," and then laughed.

The two young couples all looked at him in confusion, so he took out another fifty-yuan ruble from his pocket, proudly unfolded it in front of everyone and compared it with the one of the two young couples, and said slowly, your one is a fifty-yuan ruble that has been invalidated.

So everyone came over to take a closer look, and found that the two young couples' one was the same as his, except that the color was slightly brown.

The guy who exposed the scam had experience, and he concluded that you two young couples look gentle and like scholars, but people turned around and found that you two are the most rookies, who else can they fool if not you?

Fan Wubing smiled when he heard this, Xintong, these people laughing and joking are very interesting, it seems that no matter what they do, they are very fun, of course, a lot of fun is bought with money.