It was here that we decided there were two types of cold. Slow cold is when if you fail to keep warm you will gradually reduce in temperature and at some point, it will become unbearable. Quick cold is when after leaving the sunshine for just a minute you have an urge to run inside otherwise you fear some extremity might drop off. This was our experience here with temperatures of -26C, with the sunshine being the only thing allowing us to be outside for more than 2 minutes at a time. The outdoor exercise equipment that we'd dismissed in other places gave us our one opportunity to stretch our legs.

The region of Hailar is the capital of Inner Mongolia. The city is known as the birth place of Genghis Khan and is famous for the large grasslands nearby. Sadly, these are not easily accessible in winter. We did however get a wonderful view of them on the train, looking especially lovely after all the birch forests of Siberia.

We left on our one and only Chinese sleeper train and found ourselves missing the Russian carriages. Our compartment was ok, but the luggage space and bedding were not as accommodating as on the Trans-Siberian. We fear our train experience may have peaked.