Trains and First Forest Visit

I got up at 5:00 on friday to go stand in a line to buy train tickets. The office opened at 6:30 but when I arrived around 5:30 there was already a long line outside in the dark and delightfully chilly air. A little over three hours later I made it inside the building. A little later I was talking to a law student and mentioned which tickets I wanted to buy. He informed me I needed to come back the next day, as they hadn’t gone on sale…Bad news or rather extra queuing practice. So five days in advance in china, actually means 4 days in advance because the day of the actual train accounts as 1 day in advance.

I talked to one of my friends about my queueing practice run and he suggested that I go to a different university to get the tickets as there would be a shorter line. The next morning I did the same 5am routine. The 5:30 queue consisted of me, and only me at this other university. I was worried, how could there be a 3+hour line at one university and none at the other. Was I in the wrong place? Was I dreaming in bed still? 6:15 another person arrives…and by 6:30 there were almost ten. Still nothing compared to the hundreds I stood with the previous morning. By 7am I had my ticket in my hand.

By 7:30am I was on a bus to who knows where to go skiing with a Chinese tour group. I was a nice ride despite the leaky window I sat next to and the amount of ice that accumulated on the inside of my window. We arrived around 11am and were told to walk around until lunch at 1230. Not entirely sure why we left at 730 only to arrive and walk around for an hour and a half. We found a nice hill and did some sledding on a piece of wood and a scrap of cardboard. Lunch was mediocre and by 2:30 we were actually at the bottom of the ski hill getting rental gear and lift tickets. We got two hour lift tickets, which I was a bit surprised at.

The ski resort/ company provided everything and basically assumed that people would come not knowing how to ski. Lift tickets and ski rentals were package deals with a 30% discount if you had your own equipment. Almost everyone there was renting. You basically show up on a tour bus, pay some money, get a lift ticket, boots and skis and then hit the slope. The slope because there is not more than one. There were actually two types of lift ticket: the standard ticket and the advanced ticket in addition to different time durations ranging from several days to 2 hours. The slope was divided into two sections. Everyone used the same lift to access the lower slope, while those with advanced tickets took a second lift to the upper half. None was it was very steep and all of it was icy. Which made for poor skiing. Not to mention the numbers of Chinese people strewn across the slopes in a wreckage of bodies, skis and poles. It was more like an ice obstacle course. There were an amazing number of sky patrol/ski instructors to actually act as drag to help beginners go down very very slow. There were mostly beginners. It was fun, but nothing like skiing in the states.

We got back on the bus at 430 and were back in town at 800. Time for some hot pot and then to bed.

The next morning I got early and went to the clothing market to get some pants repaired. I got back just about 930 when I got a call from my professor. “Are you free today? Can you go to the forest plantation?” “sure”. At 10 I was standing in another train ticket line. This one was only an hour and half. At 4 I was on a 6 hour train to northern Heilongjiang with a standing ticket. A standing ticket affords you permission to stand in the seating car wherever there is space, mostly in the aisle. The train was packed. In our car alone there were at least 50 people standing. Maximum capacity, schmaximum capacity. Every time the food cart came through was a disaster as we all scrambled to sit laps and squeeze out of the way. About 3 hours into the journey enough people got off that I was able to steal a seat.

When we got into town we walked about 100feet to the first hotel and got a room. About an hour later the police came and asked what we were doing. After a quick explanation that we were from the forestry university and were coming to visit the forest bureau, they were off and we were asleep. The next morning we had some excellent wild vegetable baozi dumplings before being visited by a different portion of the police department. This time was still about me, the foreigner, but they had to come to collect the hotel registration information, which the hotel staff had forgotten to collect = fine of 200rmb ($30).

We reported to the forestry bureau at 8:30 and were promptly offered cigarettes by the minister of timber production. First we went to see the log distribution yard. All of the logs coming out of the forest are dropped at the yard where they are sorted according to species and length before going on the saw mill. The whole operation was very low tech. A bunch of guys with log moving sticks, and some rudimentary cranes. Next we went to the forest plantation office were we were again offered cigarettes and tea. After drinking some tea we got back in the car and drove to a portion of the natural forest currently being logged. It was all selective cutting based on size. The forest itself was fairly sparse and consisted of mostly young scrawny trees. The cutting was done with chainsaws, but that was the only machine involved. Draft horses and sledges were employed to drag the logs out of the forest and back to the main road. At this particular site there were four horse drivers and two chainsaw operators. They actually lived at the site in something resembling a shepard’s tent, but made out of plastic sheeting. Their beds were made of small round stave crude platforms. They live at the site for about three months at a time and make between 600 and 900 rmb a month. About $3 a day.

After the forest we went back to the plantation office for lunch, baijiu (white Chinese liquor about 50%) and some drunken talk about timber production. At 3 we were back on a train for Harbin.

Forest Trip Pictures

In other news I gave up our apartment today and am taking a train to Beijing. Will be on the road for about two months. Come March will hopefully be setup and living in Yunnan.

Ice Festival Pictures

Check out this motorcycle. It is complete with its own coal stove for internal heating.