The rainbow never sets

In preparation for our six-day train journey to Moscow the Lonely Planet had suggested to buy lots of provisions, as the food on the train was said to be only very poor. We did this, lots of tinned meat, tinned fruit, jam, soup, sausages and bread, all extra luggage, but again we were well advised.

Beijing station is said to handle over 90,000 passengers a day. They all seemed to be there when we arrived. It was steaming hot, the locals were fanning themselves even walking in the street. The waiting room was full of Westerners, all waiting for the Moscow train. There goes our cabin for two, we thought, as hard class had berths for four. But the train was enormously long, and we did get our cabin for two, what luxury!

The train was spotlessly clean, white sheets and a nice pillow. There were two attendants per car, ours were a male and a female Russian, whom we called Ivan and Mrs. Ivan. They took shifts to look after us. Although quite severe looking and very rarely smiling, they were kind and friendly to us. No English, of course. With the help of Margies phrase book and searching my brain for some school Russian, we managed. The seats were not at all hard. They were vinyl covered upholstery and quite comfortable. Ivan or Mrs. would come at night to convert them into a bunk with a good mattress, clean white sheets and a pillow. Above this was another bunk which could be let down if there were four persons in the cabin.

Then it was good-bye to Beijing, our last stay in China. As the train pulled out of the station punctually at 8.30 pm, a few heavy drops of rain fell. The sky was black. It had been building up to this thunder storm all afternoon, and then it came pelting down, bringing refreshment to people, animals and plants. The train was rushing through a prosperous looking countryside, and against the black clouds I saw a brilliant rainbow.

Next door to our cabin was a couple from New Zealand, Don and Leslie Campbell. They had pre-booked their trip from Hong Kong to Helsinki, paying about $6000 each. They had stayed at the most expensive hotels everywhere and complained that the standard had definitely not been five-star. In some places Don had to repair some taps before they could have a shower. They had also been about four weeks in China, and seen much the same places as we, with the addition of Xian. However, they had gone most of the way by plane. They had booked Beijing to Moscow on the trans-Mongolian train, but when they arrived in Beijing, they were told that the train was full and that they would have to go on this train, via Manchuria. Hearing this we felt even happier, that we had not booked our trip in Australia.

After a good night's sleep in our 'hard class', we had a sumptuous breakfast from the provisions we had brought with us. We could get as much tea from our attendants as we wanted. We would try the dining car for dinner that night. Shenyang was our first stop. After that the countryside began to look poorer. The fields were no longer producing

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