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Day 14: Crossing into China: Part II

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We finished the customs process and received our temporary Chinese license plates today at 5:25 pm. Just like in Yokohama, we were getting  a little worried that we might have to spend the weekend in Suifenhe, but our new guide, Sim, made everything come together, so we’ll be heading to Harbin on Saturday morning. But today will be a story for tomorrow — as a preview, it involved a junkyard, barking dogs, a near fist fight, and a woman carrying a baby.

We departed Vladivostok at 7 a.m. Thursday to drive to Pogranichnyy, a town on the Russian border where we were to meet up with the truck drivers who would take the trucks across and where Luke and I would board the bus to carry us across the border. Along the way, we encountered sheepherders,

 

Sheepherders encountered about 30 miles outside Vladivostok

Sheepherders encountered about 30 miles outside Vladivostok (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

four miles on a gravel road due to construction (which brought back memories of driving forest roads in New Mexico),

 

Construction zone demolition derby practice

Construction zone demolition derby practice (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

our first fueling stop in Russia,

 

First pit stop in Russia

First pit stop in Russia (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

radio telescopes (I think — maybe they’re something else),

 

Radio telescopes or some sort of satellite dishes

Radio telescopes or some sort of satellite dishes (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

horses,

 

Horses encountered during the drive to the border

Horses encountered during the drive to the border (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

beautiful open country,

 

Open country during the last 45 minutes of the drive to the border

Open country during the last 45 minutes of the drive to the border (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and at 10:30 am, Pogranichnyy, where the Roadster created quite a stir, as usual. We’re getting used to these crowds following us whenever we wander into town.

 

Creating a ruckus once again

Creating a ruckus once again (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

At noon, the trucks hadn’t arrived, and it seemed there was some sort of problem. We headed to a restaurant for some Chinese food, and then at 1300 Svetlana got a call and we dashed to the cars and drove north back out of town to meet the replacement trucks. The first truck arrived, and it wasn’t of the “rollback” type we thought we were getting, so there was no easy way to load the cars, especially the Roadster. This was the picture in the previous post.

After an hour of discussion about forklifts, containers, two simultaneous cranes, car lifts, and other ideas on how to levitate the cars onto the flatbeds, we decided we needed a loading dock. So Svetlana took off with one of the truck drivers and they investigated every possibility in town — each one wasn’t quite right, but they each directed her to another facility that might work.

In the meantime, I went for a short walk and snapped a picture of this pretty kitty:

 

Russian kitty cat

Russian kitty cat (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

At 3:10 pm, Svetlana returned and the conga line now consisting of the guide van, the Roadster, the SUV, and the two Russian trucks headed to the loading dock:

 

Our salvation -- the loading dock!

Our salvation — the loading dock! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

By 3:45, John’s car was on one truck,

 

Loading the Roadster onto one truck

Loading the Roadster onto one truck (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

although we had a brief scare with some overflowing antifreeze from the Roadster,

 

Scary-looking anti-freeze

Scary-looking anti-freeze (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and by 4:00, the SUV was on the other truck, so Luke and I raced with Svetlana back to town to buy our bus tickets.

 

Leo's truck -- we're pros at this now

Leo’s truck — we’re pros at this now (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

But not so fast … Svetlana took us to the border to get on the bus, and when we arrived, we saw that the trucks were nowhere near crossing yet.

 

Cars waiting at the border

Cars waiting at the border (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Luke and I got some ice cream, and about 5:15, the trucks pulled across the first border barrier into the customs area. It looked like things were moving along, but then they pulled over to one side instead of continuing forward. Luke and I got on the bus at 5:20, where we sat for 45 minutes until the bus drove about 50 feet into the Russian immigration and customs area. After clearing immigration and customs, we reboarded the bus on the other side and about 6:30, we drove to Suifenhe, where we finally met our guide, Sim.

 

Customs building in Suifenhe

Customs building in Suifenhe (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

But John and Leo were still waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. After a seemingly endless cycle of paperwork and passport inspections, Svetlana managed to get a temporary pass inside the border area and she somehow facilitated the release of the trucks into China. John and Leo arrived at Chinese customs about 9 pm as the customs officers were turning out the lights. But we all made it! Here’s our celebratory dinner in China at our hotel:

 

First dinner in China

First dinner in China (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow’s post: Getting the cars out of purgatory today.

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Day 14: Crossing into China, Part I

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We’re heading back to Customs in just a few minutes, but I have access to wireless and time for a quick post to let everyone know we made it across the border into China yesterday. I plan to write a more detailed account later this evening about yesterday’s rather eventful crossing. I will say now that if our guide, Sventlana, hadn’t intervened for us, we’d probably still be sitting in Russia. To give you an idea of how the day went, here’s the first attempt at loading John’s Roadster onto one of the Russian trucks for transport — despite the much appreciated effort on the part of four different truck drivers, this didn’t work out very well … By the time we abandoned this method, it was already almost 3pm.

First loading attempt in Russia

First loading attempt in Russia (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

The four of us and the cars all made it across the border and into Suifhenhe late yesterday (Luke and me on the bus about 6pm and Leo and John with the trucks/cars about 9pm Vladivostok time), but as of noon today (Friday), the cars are still awaiting customs release. We are going to stay another night in Suifhenhe and will drive directly to Harbin tomorrow instead of stopping in Mudanijiang.

This morning, we completed the paperwork we need for driving in China, include Chinese driver’s licenses; now all we need is the cars! So far, everything on the Chinese side has gone smoothly and everyone is very friendly and helpful.

Now if I could just figure out the time zone change here. Somehow in the 200 km drive to the border from Vladivostok, we managed to gain three hours — we’re now on Beijing time.

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Day 13: The Cars Clear Customs in Russia

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The cars cleared customs today and are now snuggled in parking spots at our hotel.

We met Svetlana in the hotel lobby this morning at 9, and she drove us in her Daihatsu Boon to the main customs building in Vladivostok, which is located about five miles from the ferry terminal and our hotel. We zipped through city side streets in the Boon, a used Japanese car with the steering wheel on the right side, which I’m sure would baffle me, but when we encountered a car whose driver refused to give an inch on a one-way lane, Svetlana screeched to a stop, slammed the Boon in reverse and backed out to the road entrance as if she does it every day, which she probably does, given the traffic in Vladivostok.

We waited in the customs building until about 10:20 while our customs inspector finished our paperwork, and then Svetlana took us back to the ferry terminal, where the cars had been taken off the ferry the day before. After about another 20 minutes, we were cleared to get the cars, but the Roadster wouldn’t start. This must be a common problem, because within about 30 seconds, the customs folks had dragged a cart with a battery the size of an ice-chest over to the Roadster. A few minutes later, we were on our way, making our first drive on Russian soil back to the hotel:

Driving back to the hotel in Vladivostok

Driving back to the hotel in Vladivostok (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

At the hotel, the Roadster attracted quite a bit of the usual attention:

Roadster distraction at the hotel

Roadster distraction at the hotel (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Leo had brought a battery charger with him, so after recharging the Roadster’s battery for about an hour, we headed to lunch and then rode a trolley car, the “Funicular,” to the top of a hill. Cost: 9 rubles, or about a quarter. Here’s the view from the top of the hill and a picture of the Funicular building that I took on our walk back down the hill:

View of the Golden Horn Bridge from the Funicular

View of the Golden Horn Bridge from the Funicular (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Funicular Building

Funicular Building (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow morning, we depart the hotel at 8:30 and head to the Chinese border at Suifene. Here’s a Google Earth picture of the border crossing:

Google Earth view of Sifuenhe border crossing -- China is on the left

Google Earth view of Sifuenhe border crossing — China is on the left

The border at Suifene can only be used by commercial traffic, so the folks at Mir came up with a workaround. At the border, the cars will be loaded onto commercial trucks. John and Leo will ride across the border with the truck drivers, and Luke and I will cross on a bus. Once we’re across, our Chinese guide will try to herd us all back together and to our hotel rooms.

I don’t know if I will have wifi tomorrow evening, so it may be at least Friday before I’m able to post again. If we have connectivity problems in China, we’ll be crossing back into Russia on Friday, May 30 and will be at a hotel on May 31 with wifi, so worst case, you’ll hear from us then!