Northern China 2004

A photographic trainspotting tour to Northern China 2004 (text and images by I. Lawrence)

An introduction to trainspotting in China

Why go to China?
China has more steam engines in day to day operation than all other countries in the world put together. And it’s all real steam. No specials have to be organised and paid for. You just turn up and watch the action. While you can travel alone and many do, most people prefer organized tours mainly because of the problems with the language. Highlights of this tour would be JaiLaNur, Huanan, Meihekou, Nanpiao and the Jingpeng pass.

How does an organised trainspotting tour work in China?
As we simply visit normal operations, very little has to be arranged in the way of permits and entrance fees.
The western tour organizer will use a chinese travelagency to arrange local transport and accommodation. For the entire tour a so called national guide will accompany us, whose main task is that of translator. Outside the large towns, it can be hard to find anyone who speak any western language. And of course we need to ask unusual questions like “what time is the next steamtrain”, “where is the coalmine”, “does factory XY still use steam”. Not the normal tourist stuff like “where is the chinese wall”. In many areas the national guide will get help from a local guide, who should know his or her way around the area. Often we know the way better ourselves from previous experience or by using reports and maps from the internet. Local guides can sometimes come in handy to find the nearest restaurant though. Sometimes the local guides are just students, who can’t keep up our pace and end up snoozing in the back of the bus while we do our thing.

What kind of tour was this.
This autumn in northern China tour was real hardcore. Most nights were spent in nighttrains to maximize the locations we could visit within two weeks.

What happened on the tour

Arrival
The adventure started when my international flight into Beijing arrived late. The rest of the group was already waiting for me. We literally had to run from the international terminal to the national terminal. We were very lucky to still make the local flight to Harbin, but it was nothing short of a miracle that our luggage made it as well! On the plane we had a chance to say hello. The group only consisted of 4 guys: two germans, a canadian and myself.

After the flight we spent four hours on a so called hardseater, you’d probably call it second class or economy class depending where you’re from. This meant we sat among the locals, who enjoyed the entertainment at seeing 4 europeans from close up. Our tour leader using his portable computer really got their interest. They took turns at walking down the carriage to stare at us and the computer. You need to know that western behaviour we learn from being babies, like not to stare at strangers is quite unknown in China. People of all ages stand around and stare at you and nobody thinks anything of it. Likewise often people will stand in your way on the streets and you’ll have to physically push them aside to get passed them.
After four hours in the “zoo”, we changed into the known comfort and privacy of a 4 berth soft sleeper on the nighttrain.

JalaiNur
JalaiNur is probably the largest opencast coalmine in China. Trains are used to bring the coal up from the bottom of the mine, and all trains are steamhauled. This means it’s virtually impossible to just photograph a single train, as there will always be other trains in the shot, sometimes as many as 7! We had unlimited access to the site. In China they haven’t experienced the “claimculture” of the west. If you have an accident it’s your own stupid fault and not the fault of the mine. Suffice to say, we had a great time photographing from sunrise to sunset. We then spent the full night and entire next day in a softsleeper to reach our next destination, Huanan, where we enjoyed a rare night in a hotelbed.

Huanan
We had planned to take the daily railbus to Lixin. It turned out that it had been chartered by a group of japanese, bad luck for the locals who had to postpone their trip to another day as there was no other means of public transport. What about us? Well we’d have to walk. How far did you say it was, only something like 10 kilometers uphill. We left our national guide behind in the hotel. The accommodation in Lixin wasn’t deemed suitable for a city girl, and after a short discussion we convinced her we could manage without her. We recommended she go shopping or something…
Before sunrise we searched for and found the station. It was so dark that at first we didn’t think there was any steamengine present in the depot. It soon got lighter. We found locals scavenging coal in the depot, and when suddenly the sun appeared and the engine left for the station amidst a cloud of steam and smoke, we had to run and waste a fair amount of film to try and capture this in a meaningful manner.
It soon became clear that there would be a fair amount of shunting needed before the first freight of the day could get underway. We decided to have our bus drive towards Lixin as far as the roads were passable. Our progress was slow on the dirttrack called road and we heard that the train was approaching earlier than expected before we were anywhere near a suitable photospot. We left the bus, where the road ended and ran through freshly harvested acres, looked for a suitable spot to cross the local stream and clamboured up to the track. We could see a tell tale smokeplume in the not so far distance and we still had some way to go. We used our last energy reserves to move (it couldn’t be called running anymore) along the track, when we noticed a horse and cart. That would be a picture. The train was already in plain sight. We only had to overtake the horse and cart and then keep a suitable distance between us and them and the picture would be ours. It worked, helped by the fact that the farmer stopped his horse to better control it during the scary passage of the train.

We started the long hike towards Lixin. This long hike soon came to an end as a small worktrain came along in close persuit of the coaltrain. The worktrain consisted of a 2 axle trolley powered by a motorbike engine and a 2 axle trailer. It seemed the locals who would have used the diesel railcar were instead using this contraption to get to Lixin. We hitched a ride, and somehow they managed to find space for 4 more people. Comfortlevel zero, but it beat walking. In the bend near Lazifang we got off. The railway makes a large loop round the mountain here and even the speed of an empty coaltrain drops to walkingpace. There was a steep shortcut up the hill which our tour leader knew would give us a second chance to photograph the train. We ran, walked, crawled and somehow made it in time and got our second shot, albeit not in a great location and in poor light.

On we went towards Lixin by foot, photographing a few up and downhill trains in the process in some of the most fantastic autumn colours we’d seen. These even impressed our canadian companion. Just before sunset we reached Lixin. We had been told to expect no comfort in Lixin. There was no comfort! No watersupply, no toilets, no bedding, no chairs, no nothing, just a bare room in a small building, with broken windows. Well in one of the other rooms there was an old televisionset which managed to pick up a weak signal, showing the modern, fast commercial china, which seemed a world apart from the simple life in these parts.

Jitong
In Chifeng we had to wait for the sleeper from Beijing. Our foursome would be reinforced by two new men. We soon called them “the tourists”. During the busride from Chifeng to the Jingpeng pass they jumped about the bus pointing their cameras in all directions, recording everything that was strange and new. Had these guys ever been abroad before?
The weather was fine, and first we concentrated on getting a ploughing farmer in the shot with a steamtrain. As the farmer was constantly on the move this meant that we had to run into position once the train appeared. The difference between the physical condition of the various tour members could be measured by the order in which camerabags were dropped to be able to run faster to make it to the correct position. Looking for further motives for pictures we stalked two donkeys. Crawling on the ground (don’t frighten the donkey) using a long lens to get the “fuzzy train behind donkey” shot didn’t meet the approval of all the tourmembers. Recording a fuzzy steamengine was considered a lethal sin by some, even if you have already got hunderds of sharp pictures.

The Jingpeng Pass is really becoming a steam mecca now. We estimated there were over 70 other photographers in the pass (we counted the busses and vans). The chance to meet a european photographer along the track was clearly larger than meeting a local. Towards the end of the day as we walked up to a certain vantagepoint hoping for a sunsetshot, an other group passed us on the way down. They were finished for the day. Never go home until the sun has set is our motto and we were proven right. We got a great sunset with plenty of glint and two trains!

Later that evening we rode the last regular steam operated sleeper in the world from Galadesitai to Baiqi. Only hardsleeper were available and the night was short, but it was an experience to remember.

During the night the weather turned cold and wet. Our bus had no heating. Our busdriver couldn’t drive, even cyclists overtook us. Our local guide couldn’t find a hotel for breakfast. There were no trains. That set the tone for the day.

There was a crossinggate keepershut with a large propaganda poster with a BR class 47! (in the middle of inner mongolia), which made a nice motive for a rare passing QJ.

The building we stayed in was used by railwaystaff. Part of the concrete floor was raised and formed a bedstead, with a possibility to light a fire underneath. This area is used as seat, table and bed. We shared this room with enormous numbers of creapy crawlies. Some had wings, others hadn’t, but instead were equiped with six, eight of even more legs. We only took our boots off, applied large quantities of bugrepellant and laid down for the night. It had been t-shirt weather during the day, but during the night the temperature dropped to around freezing. I was glad I’d brought the goretex trousers and coat along.

We woke up before 5:00, due to the cold, the first light in the sky and lack of comfort. Surprisingly there were no bugs around when we woke up, surely they’d moved to warmer places. The tourleader sped away to find out if there were any trains due. He came back, grabbed his camerabag and shouted that we should follow him. There was a train due shortly before sunrise. O I do hate this early morning stress. Even without the sun, which was still hidden behind the hills, it was a spectacle to see this little engine creeping along with a heavy loaded train, envelopped in huge clouds of steam. We watched the train slip and the fireman had to apply sand by hand to the wet slippery rails before the train finally could reach the station. We then retreated to our room and had breakfast. We were offered traditional chinese breakfast (rice soup), but as this looks and tastes like dishwash water, we decided to stick with our supply of muesli bars.

After breakfast our group split up. Two men decided to walk over the hill, photograph the first uphill train, and then walk back for the next banked train. I and the other one wanted to wait in Lixin and only watch the departure of the banked train. Nothing much moved for hours and when finally things did happen, everyone was in the wrong place at the wrong time to properly exploit it photographically.
Later in the afternoon the two mini groups met trackside, spent time sleeping in the long grass and finally walked downhill towards the place where our bus could pick us up. On the way a good shot could be had of the chartered railbus, which passed us picking japanese photographers up along the track as it went along.

After walking for approx. 6 of the 8 km to Tuayaozi, the local guide came along to pick us up with a group of motorbiketaxis. This turned out to be a very bad idea. We died many deaths, at least in our imagination. Anyone who has been in China knows the suicidal manner in which motorbikes negotiate the traffic. Our drivers were no exception. Other traffic wasn’t the problem here, there was none. But the state of the path was such that any speed greater than snalespace was dangerous and they covered the last 2km in a matter of minutes! After arriving in the village we congratulated each other on still being alive and recuperated in the local shop. We were offered seats on their bedstead (the same concrete thing like we’d slept on in Lixin) in a corner of the shop, which doubled as livingroom, bedroom and kitchen. In the courtyard behind the shop chickens were running around, now and then using the shop as a shortcut to the road in front of the shop. Our bus hadn’t arrived yet and we noticed that the japanese party was waiting near the shop too. After regaining our strength, we found out that there was another train coming. There was still plenty of daylight left, so we decided to walk along the track to a suitable photo point. Our local guide got rather upset and tried to get us to wait for the bus. We didn’t really understand why, so we finished the discussion by simply walking away, leaving him behind. During the wait for the train we entertained the local children and then saw our bus pass…. The japenese guys were aboard and it was leaving. They waved at us. We waved back.
After getting our last shot we met up with our national guide again, who’d come along with the bus. She wouldn’t come clean, but it was clear to us that the local guide had tried to save money, using one bus for two groups. Quickly two taxis were summond and we set off in hot (or by now cold) persuit of the bus. Later that evening we were reunited with our luggage in the bus, and after a quick meal we boarded the nighttrain to Meihekou. We really appreciated the comfort of the softsleeper and in particular the running water in the bathroom. Two days of dirt and coaldust fought a losing battle against hot water and soap. We emerged looking slightly more like first class travellers.

Meihekou
We spent a full day along the coalmine system of Meihekou. The day wasn’t very eventful, as there were few trains, and the temperature was too high to get any steamexhaust, so photographic possibilities were limited.

Nanpiao
We got off the nighttrain in Jinzhou at 4:30 and drove to Nanpiao by bus. Nanpiao has a series of coalmines linked by a railwaysystem. The passengertrains on this system are usually steam hauled. We took our first photos during sunrise, which were made interesting by the cool weather and early morning fog. Then we visited the main shunting yard by walking through the main railway offices. Open the frontdoor, smile, walk through the hallway, smile some more, open the back door, keep smiling, enter the yard, made it! We then visited all the usual places and took all the usual shots.
In the evening we visited a local hotel to take a shower. We had two rooms and an hour time. You need to know that taking a shower in China (outside Beijing and Shanghai) is always exciting. Will there be water, will there be clean water, will there be clean warm water, will this clean warm water be unbearably hot and will it actually come out of the shower, will it flood the room… If it can happen, it will happen if you travel long anough in the more remote areas of China.
The rooms turned out to be luxury suites with massive television sets, high end audio equipment, comfy seats… and a showercabin with more nozzles than you’ve ever seen, and an equally impressive set of nobs to control everything. All the deeper was the disappointment when we pushed every button and turned every nob, but only managed to get a minute trickle of water to appear from the top most nozzle. Allright it was warm and wet, so we showered. As the only towels supplied weren’t much larger than my handkerchief, the cleanest side of my dirty t-shirt was pressed into service as auxilliary towel. My hairdryer was also used for things the manufactorer wouldn’t even have dreamt of. In the end we made in to the station, clean and dry and with repacked backpacks with even 5 minutes to spare for our next nighttrain to Chifeng.

The only bit of excitement that day was when we drove back to the railwaystation. Suddenly we discovered that the train, our train, would leave earlier than anticipated. As the station came into view we saw our train already along the platform. We urged out driver to more haste…. to no effect. Our guide, who normally gets stress if we aren’t in the station at least half an hour in advance (we always deem 5 minutes to be sufficient) now nearly fainted as she saw the train ready to leave. The bus trundled on, were we moving at all? Progress was measured in meters per minute. Finally we arrived. We reanimated our guide back to life while jumping out of the bus and storming into the first open doors we saw, seconds before the train left. Made it!

The train was a hypermodern streamlined dieselunit, a far cry from last nights steamhauled sleeper. We had softseaters. Comfort was comparable to anything you’d find in europe today, with aircon, dynamic informationdisplays (messages even in english). The message to keep the train clean was repeated frequently. Even so the coach attendants were continueously sweeping the carpet, as chinese drop everything they don’t need on the floor, including leftover food. In the train we saw one of the best sunsets we’d ever seen. But we were in the train, and not out trackside, which caused great distress. Even the use of the emergencybrake was discussed. Later that evening we arrived back in our hotel in Reshui.

In Baiqi it had been chilly and wet. In the Jingpeng Pass it was COLD. It had snowed during the night and was still snowing in the morning. We needed our long underwear and windresistent clothing.
Some men, exaggerating, told us the pass had been dieselised (we’d only been away one day!). It turned out that four dieselengines had been transferred from elsewhere and were now used on the pass, usually in doubletraction with a steamengine. Luckily there was so much traffic that it didn’t hinder photography too much.

We spent a few day on the pass, and got some great shots, again with nice autumncolours. But all good things come to an end and soon the day of our departure arrived. There was a last opportunity to visit the depot in Daban for those who hadn’t been there before. In the evening we were in the first class waitingroom at Chifeng station in plenty of time for our train. The first class washroom didn’t have any water, but that posed no problem for a trained engineer. Simply opening the stop-cock under the washbowls solved the problem. It was a little bit strange that the water would be turned off, but hey it’s China. After a short while the first class waitingroom attendant came running. A mini tsoenami was approaching over the floor and it was clearly originating from the washroom. She went for someone in an impressive uniform and together they stood looking at the problem. It was clearly time to grap our bags and leave for the train… I still wonder how long it took them to find a suitably skilled person to turn the stop-cock off again? And how long it took to actually solve the problem (leak in the plumbing).

Departure
In Beijing there was time for breakfast. A minivan was waiting for us, with a unknown local guide and driver. Our tourleader usually insists on known guides. But what could go wrong on the short trip to the airport. Well first of all the guide refused to believe there were still any steamengines operating in China (It clearly didn’t fit the picture of the modern China she believed in). It also seemed hard to find a western hotel to have breakfast. We ended up in a really highend hotel, surrounded by tourists. Once we found out what the breakfast would cost, we decided our supply of mueslibar would see us through and left after using the sanitary facilities. We did eventually make it to the airport and all got our flights back home.