Destination VLADIVOSTOK
Heading northeast on a motorway we travelled for about five hours until we crossed the Yellow River but no photos were worth taking due to the heavy industrial smog, which got worse as we approached the river.
Heavy industrial plants spewed out masses of acrid fumes, which left a metallic taste in the mouth, stung the eyes and brought on immediate coughing. This went on for almost 200km.
Finally we rose out of the depression of the Yellow River, crossed some low hills and the air became clean and fresh and we continued onto our destination of Yangpao, an old walled city which dates back 2700 years – it had been a day of China old and new.
Mongolia was different; a vast, fairly flat grassland with new cities every 50km or so and many power stations plus huge wind turbine farms with hundreds if not thousands of generators. We crossed the border into Mongolia at Erenhot and said farewell to our excellent Chinese guides Xu Jia and Gu Yuan, whose final act was to help us through customs.
What a contrast was Mongolia. From the
