(no subject)
People's glorious Hello! We are in Hohhot. Traveing here by train was beautiful and amazing (especially getting to watch the Gobi from a safe distance!) I couldn't be happier that a doctor told Corvi to stay in UB for 5 days and to not fly for 10! It's well past time to be home, but the road back is incredible.
The line between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China, was stark and disturbing. You go from dustswept poverty and herders to concrete block group farms and pavement and highways and all the infrastructure that Mongolia can't seem to muster itself.
Our hotel has four letters waiting in our room on arrival explaining which services are not working due to current government regulation. The Internet is onot one of the affected services, but the Great Firewall of China blocks LJ. Luckily, it still doesn't block SSH.
Not that I have anything to say that might be detrimental to the political, ideological, security, etc., goals of the PRC. (Nor do I have any goods that might be, just like I said on the customs declaration! Man, it was cool seeing the literal dozens of tanks on a train we passed, though.
I am very impressed with this country, as I was impressed by the shadows that the USSR had left behind in Russia - infrastructure and willpower and determination and ideology to accomplish impressive feats that modern America couldn't equal, to say nothing of modern Russia or any of the more neglected children of the USSR., like Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Ukraine would know what to do with that sort of insfrastructure, unlike the others, but just lain can't get its act together fast enough.
Here is a marvel of integration and planning and ways and means, though. And the token bits of Mongolian culture they've allowed to stay intact are impressive. Someone at the train station recognized our magpie calligraphy and half the buildings have Mongolian script on them, something lost to everyone but historians, nationalists and artists in Mongolia. The language here is solidly mMandarin, though, even though some ethnic Mongols at the station clearly spoke Mongolian at least as wel, though with an accent that was at least as affected as the stereotypical New York City and Boston accents in the USA.
I'm excited and heavily intrigued When will I get to see this place again? It's incredible! And this is nothing like the biggest city we'll see on our trip back. Exciting! Invigorating! I can't read or speak a word of it! :)
The line between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China, was stark and disturbing. You go from dustswept poverty and herders to concrete block group farms and pavement and highways and all the infrastructure that Mongolia can't seem to muster itself.
Our hotel has four letters waiting in our room on arrival explaining which services are not working due to current government regulation. The Internet is onot one of the affected services, but the Great Firewall of China blocks LJ. Luckily, it still doesn't block SSH.
Not that I have anything to say that might be detrimental to the political, ideological, security, etc., goals of the PRC. (Nor do I have any goods that might be, just like I said on the customs declaration! Man, it was cool seeing the literal dozens of tanks on a train we passed, though.
I am very impressed with this country, as I was impressed by the shadows that the USSR had left behind in Russia - infrastructure and willpower and determination and ideology to accomplish impressive feats that modern America couldn't equal, to say nothing of modern Russia or any of the more neglected children of the USSR., like Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Ukraine would know what to do with that sort of insfrastructure, unlike the others, but just lain can't get its act together fast enough.
Here is a marvel of integration and planning and ways and means, though. And the token bits of Mongolian culture they've allowed to stay intact are impressive. Someone at the train station recognized our magpie calligraphy and half the buildings have Mongolian script on them, something lost to everyone but historians, nationalists and artists in Mongolia. The language here is solidly mMandarin, though, even though some ethnic Mongols at the station clearly spoke Mongolian at least as wel, though with an accent that was at least as affected as the stereotypical New York City and Boston accents in the USA.
I'm excited and heavily intrigued When will I get to see this place again? It's incredible! And this is nothing like the biggest city we'll see on our trip back. Exciting! Invigorating! I can't read or speak a word of it! :)