China

This YANA trip started with a 2.5 hours flight from Shanghai to Haerbin. We went to "the heart of Inner Mongolia", where China borders Mongolia and Russia.
Northern weather was a cool change from hot and sticky Shanghai in July. 35-38C in Shanghai, a perfect 20-25 in North-East... with quite a lot of rain at the end.

After the flight, we spend a few hours in Haerbin, then spend 8 hours in the train to Baicheng, stopping there for a few hours. We then took a night train to Aershan and spent the day in the National Park, did some hiking and rafting there and finally slept in the house of peasants in a small village.
The next day, we drove and hiked in the region, ate a lot of mutton and slept in a yurt. The following day, we drove and hiked again and continued eating mutton... we slept in a hotel in Hailaer (Hulunbeier on the map), enjoying the first shower for 3 days and modern comfort... The final day we flaw to Beijing, and I stopped over there for 5 more days when my friends continued to Shanghai.

Click on the small pictures below or the links to access the different parts: