Summer 2021 - Going to north east （东北）China - From Yiwu to Shenyang (从义乌到沈阳)

         Ok, It has been almost a year since I wrote anything here. I am nothing if not inconsistently consistent. So, I have not been further north than Beijing before. I always wanted to see Inner Mongolia and I have heard a bit about the North east provinces (Liaoning , Jilin and Heilongjiang) many times. So my plan is to go through Liaoning (Shenyang , Dandong and Dalian) then take a train straight through Changchun to Harbin (Heilongjiang) then stop for a brief period in Qiqihar before moving on to Inner Mongolia.

         I took the train around 11 P.M. one evening deep in the knowledge that I will have to spend 32 hours on this mechanical marvel. I booked a hard sleeper safe in the knowledge that I will be able to sleep twice before disembarking in Shenyang.

Home for 2 nights 

More comfortable than it looks,

(Although I did sleep on the bottom of the 3 bunks)

        I did not realize  that so much corn is grown EVERYWHERE in northern China. The closer one gets to Liaoning, the more one sees fields full of food.

So much food everywhere

Not much leftover space here

       I knew I would be quite thirsty on this trip (and on most trips) so I decided to do what a lot of the locals do, bring some tea leaves and a thermos flask and top of the thermos with boiling hot water all the time.

Peppermint tea to keep the thirst under control

                                              

I wonder where that path leads to?

       In fairness some of the sights on the way up to Shenyang were not too mind blowing but it was still interesting to see how much can be build in a limited area of space.

I think this was Jinan in Shandong province.

So many buildings.

But it was always interesting to see marshland.

I ended up seeing many areas like this in north east China. 

Odd cloud formation here

       When I got off the train (after 2 nights of quite good sleep. The train staff darken the windows pretty well so the carriages are pitch dark at 10:45 each night.) I walked in a stupor for a while. The first street that I walked down would have shocked a bit if I was more awake. I did not really expect to see a collection of sex shops so close to the station. All I was looking for was food and a place to stay so I moved on .

        To find a place, I used the Meituan (美团) app. (Search for hotels (宾馆) while inside the app. )

I was able to find a place about 5km from the train station. This place provided a bed and a shared toilet. I reckon I would probably spent most of the time away from the hotels/ hostels that I stayed at so there was not much point getting a fancy place to stay at.

          

Always remember where you are staying

(and if you cannot remember, take a picture)

The bedroom

I would show a pic of the toilet but the glass in the door 

kept falling down and I was afraid that I was going to

break that glass.

       I went for  walk around the park in the area and I noticed that people really love parks here and there seems to be a lot of amusement parks in the area. (I always remember watching documentaries about North Korea and one would always see amusement parks there.) This province is right beside North Korea so I guess some of the culture is shared between the two areas.

These merry go rounds are popular around these parts

Not many clouds in the sky  (南湖公园)

Nice artwork on the streets of Shenyang

      I decided to stop by a big shopping mall to see how this place differs from the malls down in Zhejiang.

I am  taking a picture of me with me in the background 

and me in the background of the background

Art is confusing at times

...... and then other times, not so confusing

Time is always a heavenly thing

Biggest flowers in the history of malls

You can't go wrong with a bowl of 肉丝面

shredded meat with noodles

      On the second day, I decided to go to a wild animal park. It was quite fun seeing the bears , pandas , tigers , wolves, llamas and the rest of the animals. I thought before I went there that it might be a bit boring but it ended up being quite entertaining.

Nice to see you guys,too

Smile for the camera!

Hiding from the heat.

(I know the feeling.)

Some wolves who I guess are too tired to get their food 

(I still prefer to stand 10 feet away from them.) 

Bears begging for some food

The shadow makes the bird look like she has 2 heads.

Pandas are playful (as long as one stands

miles away from the panda!)

Quite the cute animal, the alpaca

Totem pole

A family of giraffes

            Enough with the zoo! I needed to eat something before the belly gave in. So, some mooncakes (月饼)  were needed.

Black sesame seed mooncake .

num num

It tastes nicer than it looks.

It's a bit dry so a beverage is called for.

My favourite snack (手抓饼 - shou zhua bing)

There is a sausage amongst the lettuce , onion and spices

Anyway, enough with the food, I decided to head to Dandong. For this journey I wanted to take the train as much as possible so it took a few hours to get to the border town of Dandong. I will put thse picture up another day. First, some ice cream......