Chinese border. Day and night. How to get from Ulan Bator to Beijing China Inner Mongolia Erlian hot

At the invitation of the administration, representatives of the republican media, including the Buryad Unen newspaper and the ITAR-TASS Buryat branch, visited Inner Mongolia. Television of the republic was represented by our film crew. A small city with big ambitions. So briefly describe the Chinese Erlyan. It is located on the border with Mongolia and is the main supplier of consumer goods to this country. From here, the children of the steppes take home almost everything - from clothing to building materials. However, a little Mongolia is not the ultimate dream for ambitious erllies. Here they want to repeat the success of bordering Manchuria and are struggling to attract Russian tourists to the city. First of all, from Buryatia and the Irkutsk region. - Gian Guo Hua, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Erlian: “We are trying to improve the level and quality of services, we are building hotels, new markets and other facilities.” At a meeting with Buryat journalists, the first secretary of the Communist Party Erlyan, Jan Guo Hua, was verbose. Which, in general, is not surprising, there is something to tell. GDP growth, the development of international trade and tourism. From a provincial town on the outskirts of China, Erlyan gradually turns into an oasis in the desert. Over the past four years, its population has grown from 25 thousand to 100 thousand people. And this is just the beginning. The city fathers intend to implement serious plans due to the advantage of their geographical position. The distance from Ulan-Ude to Erlyan via Mongolia is almost the same as that to Manchuria. However, from Manchuria to Beijing as many as two thousand kilometers, and from Erlyan only seven hundred. - Jang Guo Hua: “If we carry good quality goods from all over China to Erlyan, and the Russians here buy and take to our place, it will be much more convenient. There is a reduction in transportation costs. ” Cheaper transportation to Russia will help another fact. Wagons carrying wood and other raw materials from Russia usually go back empty. In the near future they will bring Chinese goods to our country. - Alexander Krokhalev, consultant to the administration of the Irkutsk region: “Overloaded Russian stations are Zabaikalsk-Manchuria, the seaport of Vladivostok-Nakhodka. Therefore, development through Mongolia would be an optimal cost-effective cargo turnover. ” While Manchuria has become a large clothing market for Russians, Erlyan intends to focus on more serious things — production and automotive equipment, loading and unloading terminals. Although going there for clothes is also profitable. Very low prices and decent sellers. The only drawback is the language barrier. But it will soon be eliminated. Chinese and Mongolian merchants will be taught the great and the mighty. Over the next 10 days, a Russian-Chinese phrasebook and city plan will be ready, and signs will appear on the streets that will point our tourists in the right direction. The Year of China in Russia continues. Within its framework, we will continue the story of the trip of Buryat journalists to Erlyan. About the sights, features of the economy and culture of this Chinese city in the reports of Larisa Irintseeva, see the next issues of the Orient Express program. Larisa Irintseeva, Vyacheslav Tsybikov from the city of Erlyan

Erlyan-Hoto, a city in northern China, in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, near the border with the MPR. The final point of the Jierskaya (Jining - Erlyan) railway (the Chinese part of the Moscow-Ulan-Ude-Ulan-Bator-Beijing highway).

Erlyanhot is the largest border city located at the junction of the Sino-Mongolian border. Currently, due to the increase in trade and economic ties between the two countries, a new railway checkpoint is being built.

But this city is not known for this. Dinosaurs are amazing animals of antiquity. They left us with many doubts and mysteries. 70 million years ago, in the area where Erlianhot is now located, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there was a dinosaur world. The living of this species of ancient animals can be judged by the numerous deposits of their remains.

Erlyanhot is located in the Chinese Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, bordered by Mongolia. This is one of the areas in Asia where the remains of ancient dinosaurs and their eggs were first discovered. Therefore, the city is also called the "native land" of dinosaurs. 70 million years ago, in the last, Cretaceous period, there were many lakes in this area, and a dense forest grew. All this created favorable conditions for the existence and reproduction of dinosaurs. Then there was a paradise for this type of animal.

Since the 90s of the last century, 6 large-scale expeditions and digging have been organized in the Erlyan -hot district, during which paleontologists and geologists from China, Russia, the USA and Canada took part. Fossil dinosaurs belonging to more than 10 species, such as, for example, platypus, etc., have been discovered. A large number of relatively whole skeletons of dinosaurs and their eggs have been discovered. This is truly a treasury of species of dinosaurs at the world level, these exhibits have attracted attention to themselves and to Erlianhoto, both paleontologists and tourists from around the world.

Approaching the city of Erdianhot, from afar you can see the giant "city gate", which are formed from the highly elongated necks of two dinosaurs. True, these are not real dinosaurs, but their sculptures. The gates in the form of "dinosaurs" stand above the state road 6 kilometers from the city. They say that these are the largest sculptures in the world depicting dinosaurs. They were made according to the restored sample of the fossil Wanlong dinosaur, the second largest dinosaur found in the world today. Each of the two "dinosaurs" forming a gate, 34 meters wide, 19 meters high. The span between the sculptures of the "dinosaurs" is 80 meters. The giant gates of the “dinosaurs” remind visitors that they have already arrived in the “homeland” of the dinosaurs.

On the side of the road on both sides of the "city gate" there are 48 sculptures of various kinds of dinosaurs. The image of these sculptures resembles living animals. And the variety of their species is so great that it simply admires visitors.

Once in the city of Erdianhot, a number of tourist sites related to the life of ancient dinosaurs, gives guests of the city an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the "native land" of dinosaurs is. The city has a park and a square dedicated to dinosaurs. Various sculptures of the most ancient animals are located there, which show how giant animals lived 70 million years ago. In 2002, the museum, also dedicated to dinosaurs, underwent reconstruction, which allowed to expand and increase the exposure associated with dinosaurs. In the museum, the exhibition presents different types of dinosaurs, their eggs, as well as the remains of other mammals found in Erlyan-khoto. A visit to the museum, of course, causes more interest in the discovered remains of dinosaurs. To satisfy their interest, tourists can go to the reserve, which is located 20 kilometers from the city of Erlyanhoto in the valley of the same name. This is Asia’s largest dinosaur cemetery by area, discovered to date. It is from here that today continue to receive reports of the discovery of these ancient monsters. In August 1999, Chinese scientists discovered the remains of a new species of dinosaur. Specialists called it the Inner Mongolia dinosaur. In 2000 and 2001, specialists from the museum of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region discovered a vast stratum where there were a large number of skeletons and bones of dinosaurs. In June of this year, the world's largest dinosaur bird was discovered here. This "cemetery" of dinosaurs constantly gives scientists surprises. It has also become a place that attracts the attention of dinosaur lovers and tourists. In order for tourists to better get acquainted with the “cemetery” of dinosaurs located in the Erlyanhoto Valley, the construction of a geological dinosaur park is in full swing under the leadership of the city authorities. The city administration allocated 5 million yuan to protect the excavation and construction of pavilions at the site of the dinosaurs discovered. Successful archaeological work on dinosaurs in Erlianhoto is of great interest to tourists.

So, already 36 hours on the road. I left Ulan-Ude by bus to Mongolia yesterday at 7.30 a.m., in Ulan Bator I immediately transferred by train to the Chinese border town of Erlyan (Erenhot), from there, after passing through all the passport and customs procedures, I took the bus to Jining, and now towards Datong in a seated train car. This is short, now about everything in detail and in order.

The bus to UB departed on schedule, there were no signs of trouble, everything went according to plan. I met my classmate on the bus, we didn’t see each other for a long time, it was nice to meet and remember the students. They crossed the Russian border normally, but trouble happened on the Mongolian. Some dude appeared at the customs there - a Mongol with a bandaged head. Especially no one attached importance to this, but the bandaged head was remembered. He turned out to be the cause of all our troubles - it turned out that he ran into our bus while we all went through the border inspection, put something (some forbidden things, smuggling - I don’t know exactly) under the back seat and was like that. Everyone safely crossed the border, were going to go on to Altan-Bulag to have dinner, as the mask shows began. Three times all passengers of the bus were forced to leave, once we passed the passport control procedure again, and the drivers wrote an explanatory note twice. As one of the drivers later said, this is the first time in his memory.

Due to a two-hour delay at the border, we arrived in Ulaanbaatar very late, and I was also not sure about the time of departure of my train to Erlyan - different time was written on different websites of travelers, but I did not find a working website for the Mongolian railway . I caught a taxi as soon as possible, became pretty nervous in Ulan-Bator traffic jams (the time was 19.45, and according to some sites, the train leaves for Erlyan at 20.00), drove to the railway station, reached the ticket office - and breathed out with relief. The Ulan Bator - Erlyan train leaves at 20.45 and arrives in China at 10.25 the next day. A ticket to a compartment car costs 70 thousand tugriks. The wagons are clean, the service is good, and even free tea and coffee is relied on.

About crossing the border. Mongolian border guards get on a train, don’t particularly inspect, they simply pick up passports and give them back with stamps. And in Chinese Erlyan, you just get off the train and passport control at the railway station. Very quickly - no more than five minutes, and you are already officially in the territory of China.

Erlian is a city in whose development the Chinese are investing a lot of money and high hopes. On the other hand is the Mongolian Zamyn-Uud, but it is like a village compared to Erlyan. The Chinese as a whole are always determined to develop border cities, one does not have to go far for examples, it is enough to compare the development of Manchuria in comparison with Transbaikal or Heihe in comparison with Blagoveshchensk. It is also planned to develop tourism in Erlian, and everywhere this city is positioned as the "capital of dinosaurs." There is a dinosaur museum, and large figures of dinosaurs are found in the steppe on the outskirts of the city.

I did not plan to spend the night in Erlian, I wanted to move faster to Datong, but the only bus leaves there early in the morning every day. The train is also daily, but also early in the morning, and the time was already about 11 in the morning. I knew that you could take the bus to Jining first, and then take the train to Datong, but I couldn’t find out from the passers-by where the bus station was (they don’t speak English and are generally afraid of foreigners).

So, rejecting the hijacking taxi drivers with offers to take me to Jining "for only" 200 yuan, I ran into Stefan, a traveler from Brussels, Belgium. As it turned out, we arrived on the same train, and he has exactly the same plans - to get to Datong by night. Before that, Stefan lived for more than a month in Mongolia in a family of reindeer herders. They started looking for a bus station together, found it half a kilometer from the railway station. The most interesting thing is that the person who showed the way to the bus station led Stefan to the ATM, where he withdrew money, and even explained to the cashier that we needed tickets for the nearest bus to Jining, the taxi driver turned out to be! Absolutely disinterestedly, before this, both I and Stefan rejected his offers to go by car to Jining. Behavior atypical for taxi drivers. Then it turned out that he had time to talk with the bus driver to tell him that we needed to find a railway station in Jining and get tickets to Datong. We learned this when we arrived - the bus driver gestured to us for one passenger (guy 25 years old), so that we would follow him. It looked a little strange, but Stefan and I did go after this guy. We walked about a kilometer and came to the train station. He helped us buy tickets to Datong, moreover, he talked with the station employees, and they “guarded us” this hour before the train departed. “Guarded” in a good way, just watched so that we would not be late for the train. When the time came, another station employee came up to us, and almost by the hand led us past the huge line for boarding the train, brought us to the necessary carriage and only then calmly left. It was all cute and cool when we were passed from hand to hand, while explaining everything only with facial expressions and gestures.

The bus from Erlyan to Jining takes five hours, and the train from Jining to Datong takes just over three hours. Late in the evening, we ended up in the ancient city of Datong. The hostel is located in the very center of Datong, a place in a six-bedded room cost 40 yuan.

Stefan and I were the only travelers in this hostel - two Chinese, Jang and Jason, lived with us in the room, they are almost local. Jason (he, of course, has a Chinese name, but he said to call him Jason) showed us once again an example of Chinese hospitality and friendliness - he said that tomorrow he would take us to his Yunnan caves (the main attraction in the vicinity of Datong) in his car.

For this day, I have already traveled 467 km in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia of the People's Republic of China.