Trip to North-eastern China

Hello everyone.

Went to China to celebrate Chinese New Year for the first time in the motherland and also with all the other relatives that are still there. Also decided since my brother and his wife were also on holiday at that time in China, I decided I should go back for a visit and for the 3 of us to head to North-Eastern China, specifically Harbin to see the world famous snow and ice sculptures.

Left on the 16th of January onboard SAA flight 288 (I think) to Beijing. The whole plane was full of Chinese going back home to celebrate Chinese New Year (like 92% were Chinese , so I blended in nicely). FYI, SAA offers direct flights from OR Tambo to Beijing Int on a weekly basis.

Sat next to a Durban chap, who's going back to Beijing for work after his annual leave, had a few interesting conversations, I also felt more relaxed because I had someone to talk English to haha.

So let's begin with the pics...oh! forgot to tell you, the flight time was about 12 hours but remember this is directly from Jozi to Beijing so no stopovers.

Stayed in Beijing for 2 days just to rest, most of my extended family stays in Beijing, so I stayed with my ouma. Did a little walk around in Bejing as its really easy to navigate and how should I say 'foreigner/tourist-friendly'.

Took a walk down Chaoyang District because I'm very familiar with that suburb/area.






No exploding car


Tianmen Square and Forbidden City


Then I took an overnight train to Hohhot (Inner Mongolia) to see my brother and his wife whom teaches English at a university there. Now in winter it is quite dry in the North of China, but OMF it's so dry in Hohhot that after a day of walking around outside, and you can home to blow your nose, it's all black and with a few specks of blood because its so dry and also due to the air pollution (I may want to add that Beijing's air pollution is still quite bad, but luckily I was there when it was clear skies and only one night it was quite smoggy).



Yes we don't like the Japs...

Spotted Bumblebee


Frozened pond at the University...average temperature is about min: -16 and max: -5'ish

Just many examples of how shitty their translation is


Eating Shao Mai (form of dumpling you can say)

Couldn't survive without this

---

A train from Beijing to Pyongyang (DPRK)

Masser

Was so chuffed to see this