Ministry in Australia

rice but mainly corn and potatoes and the villages consisted of mud-brick homes. The roads were unpaved, showing deep mud from the downpour the previous might. But all homes had a T.V. antenna. We had stopped at Changchun and in the evening light the city of Harbin showed itself in all its glory. It was a large place with heavy and light industry. The streets looked broad and were full of people.

Dinner was to be our last Chinese meal. I love eating in a dining car, enjoying a nice meal and watching the countryside go by the window. It brought back fond memories of my childhood. The meal was quite good, except the rice, which was of poor quality. One dish looked to me like sea cucumber (a mollusc). Alison poked her chop stick into it and her face said it all. She couldn't eat it, even when I suggested it might be egg plant, although I was quite sure that it was sea cucumber.

We went to bed at 9.30 although it was still day-light. It got colder and we needed our blankets. The landscape had changed again, grass covered hills with the odd cattle or horses grazing.

At 4.30 the next morning we were rudely wakened by Ivan. He said something in Russian which we couldn't understand, but it was pretty obvious, he wanted us all to get up and get dressed. An hour later we arrived at the Russian border. A lot of Chinese in army uniforms descended on the train. Our passports were collected, and one man wanted to see our two cameras. That was all. We were stretching our legs in the crisp morning air, when someone came over to us, holding our two passports, ordering us: "You come!"

We were in trouble. We followed him, with no idea what it was all about. "Did you know that your visa had expired," an officer spoke to us through an interpreter.

"No. We had applied for a visa for four weeks, and we stayed exactly four weeks in China."

"This visa was valid for three months, it expired on 17 June." "But how is that possible, we only arrived in Guangzhou on 9 June? Today is 6 July."

"Here, look at the visa. It says clearly 'expires on 17 June'." "I'm sorry, I can't read Chinese."

"You must be punished." "But how were we to know?" "You must be punished!" After some discussion among themselves, the Interpreter said: "You must pay fine of 100 Yuan ($40)"

"We are only poor people, and it surely wasn't our fault!" "You must be punished."

Nothing would persuade the officer. We had spent all our Yuan, so we went to the exchange and after some considerable waiting got 105 Yuan for $40. Alison went to pay the fine, while I changed back the five Yuan into 1 US$.

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