6 days on the train through China (1 day), blanketed by smog, mostly agricultural once through the mountains North of Beijing. Looked dry and the dominant colour was a dirty light brown. In Norther china light covering of snow. Mongolia , (1 day) mostly treeless plains until North of Ulan Bator where the mountains had forests. These looked like a bigger version of Strath Spey. Cold in Ulan Bator. Siberia possibly 10 to 20 degrees colder the water tanks and the toilet kept freezing at night. Up to 3 ft of snow, all the rivers frozen over with snow lying on top. The Russian restraunt car (for last 4 days)wouldnt take Yuan. I hadn't found a bank in Seoul or in Beijing that would sell roubles. Fortunately had laid in some supplies but I'm not keen on Snickers bars for breakfast. Crossed what I think must be the Urals, a bit bigger than the South Downs but not mountains, and the temperature was then around or above freezing, woken up by being too hot for the first time since Beijing.
Arrived in Moscow exactly on time and was met with a delivery of my Ticket to Helsinki.
The first 4 days were interesting if sometimes cold, lots to see, Baikal was impressive frozen. The last two days dragged a bit, its all flat and mostly the same sort of landscape. The trains we passed all seemed to be carrying coal, only one train with a few cars. The last time, 2 years ago, many trains carried cars.
