The Chinese Village That Looks Nothing Like China (And How to Get There) | S8, EP154

Can you talk to the military guy? Good morning Internet, it is 8.30 in the morning and welcome back to the channel Welcome here to China, to Lingxi and today I'm reunited with Bing those two motorbikes are from different people but basically today I'm riding again with Bing and with Xiaolei she's going to be riding and Bing will be pillion and maybe they'll swap if Bing's eye is improving, I hope it will be better today but let's see and today we're maybe really heading far north so it might get cold today it's going to be a big chunk, a lot of distance we're going to Arshan which is right here at the border with Mongolia up in the mountains here Okay, let's go But your eye feels better today, right? Yeah, yeah. Good My goggles are fogging up Let me put them on later The good news is Bing's eye feels a little better today There was one spot on his eyelid that was irritating his eye that came off yesterday so he will ride just the bike out of the city because Xiaoye is not so tall and having this super heavy bike with a passenger and all the luggage, you need to be able to kind of touch the ground so especially with all the traffic lights in the cities Bing will ride the bike out of the city and I think then they'll swap Oh yeah, in the last video I wanted to film this square and I thought, oh yeah I will just walk there after but I was so exhausted I just fell asleep but yeah I thought this square looked so interesting with all the blocks behind it We just filled up Xiaoye is going to ride now She looks so badass Well the muddy stuff is continuing into today although this is not so bad For me it's time to actually check the oil on Frankie I need to keep on checking that I am doing so much distance every day here like every day is above 300 or close to 400 kilometers and it is normal for this kind of engine to consume a little bit of oil. So far actually since Moritz changed the piston I have not consumed anything but it is very possible that I need to top up like 200, 300 ml or something There is also a lot of oil around here but that's normal that's also part of riding a nearly 40 year old motorbike Yeah I'll top up a tiny bit but it's virtually nothing This is very dirty It's always so difficult to see though How full, how empty You really wish that this oil reservoir just had a glass window right that I wouldn't have to take the side panel off and I could actually see something That's enough I think I just texted you Are you okay? All good Let's go, let's go There are so many pollen in the air I have pretty bad hay fever but not for every tree or plant so I hope I am okay with this one but my nose is itchy not only my boots A pollen storm Yep a good one See I feel like I am in Avatar with all those have you seen that movie with all those flying things Look everywhere It's like it's snowing Wow it's so pretty here Look these fields are also full of wildflowers I don't know if you can see Here are some yellow ones but there are also like little purple flowers in between There are some young horses on the road Don't be scared It's okay Don't run into the fence It is lunch time Everybody is working on their vehicles here Look entire truck engines are hoisted out This one also needs some attention Well for once I am not the one that has any vehicle trouble It is amazing I so wish I could read Chinese It would make my life so easy now There is supposed to be a restaurant somewhere here Bing and Xiaoye are a little bit behind They will be here soon We have a little guard kitten Let's see what we have Chicken bowls So much food I have absolutely no idea what it all is like what is this and rice So this is my selection for today Looks very tasty Oh it's raining It's raining How's the food? It's good You need to pay for me because it's only WeChat It's not working Alipay not working only WeChat So I said on the Google Translate I have friends coming Otherwise they won't let you go Exactly It's still raining a little bit but it's clearing up I don't think there is going to be any mud flows Anyone need a tyre? No Chinese I'm going to call Bing He's a bit behind Hey Bing Hello The police stopped me Are they an immigration officer? I don't know It just says police What kind of uniform are they wearing? Blue Okay so can I speak to them? Yeah I'll give him to you Where are you going? Okay so they are just the border check police Okay So no worries He said he will just need to register your passport and I told him that I'm behind Okay I will be there very soon He said he will give you back the passport very soon and you can leave Okay I can go Okay thank you Bye I go this way? I cannot go? Yes Bing? He just wants to know our contact number Okay so I can go now? Yes you can go Okay thank you Bye Thank you Yeah there is just an immigration checkpoint here because I'm very close to the border with Mongolia Yeah I don't know if you can see that here Yeah you see the red line? Ah you see this red line? So the border with Mongolia is just right in front here Now at the military checkpoint, can you talk to him? Hello? Sir what did you say? Can you talk to the military guy? Military? Hello comrade Hello Okay so this is the military checkpoint Yeah He said it's okay He just wants to check your passport and you need to take off your helmet Okay I will do that Okay thank you Bye Border areas are always a bit sensitive It definitely looks like Mongolia here right? Except more developed with a paved road and electricity lines and everything Where did you come from? Ghelan Where are you going? Ashlan Hey Bing Hi I am at another checkpoint Can you talk to them? Hi Lee It's all good I talked to him He will return your passport and then you can leave Okay thank you We passed the two checkpoints You are at the first checkpoint? No we passed the two checkpoints already Okay Bye They cannot catch up with me, I am so fast Anyway I put on my rain jacket again because I have a feeling I am going to get some more rain I also kind of left the grasslands behind a little bit and I am heading more towards mountains again climbing because I am at nearly 1400 meters Yep it starts raining I knew it I made it Oh yeah this town looks very very different from any other of the Chinese towns and I will explain you later why that is At least no high rise apartment buildings Just have smaller houses I don't know where to look Very different Look at this What a beautiful setting right? Right here next to the river and surrounded by these mountains You can walk across here A big mix of different styles hey Here have a look at this How cool does this look It almost looks like Disneyland a little bit I have to say everywhere like these places in China, it is so clean I never see any trash or nothing So let's explore town a little bit but mainly I want to see the most famous building in town here The style of buildings here is this bizarre mix of Japanese influence, Russian slash Siberian influences and some of the buildings even look European and the reason for that is that in the 1930s Japan actually occupied a large part of north eastern China and they called that area Manchuria at the time and it was Japan's industrial and military base in mainland Asia and this town Arshan became very important because of the forest and the minerals there's hot springs and of course a strategic location next to Mongolia and the Japanese were actually heavily influenced by European architecture at the time so that explains the Japanese influence and the European kind of look of some of the buildings but the most famous building is the railway station, see it is right over there and I think it's actually the smallest railway station in China and it's still actively in use so let's check it out So this is the train station and it was built in 1937 Oh it starts raining See the train is waiting there It's getting very windy, I think some very bad weather is coming So during the last few weeks of World War II the Soviet forces invaded and the Japanese surrendered and the Soviets remained for a few months to make sure that the Japanese forces were all removed and then under agreement with China it became part of China again So that's the last piece of the puzzle explaining also Russian influence in this area So this town is just such a bizarre mix of buildings and style and it's a very small town there's only less than 3000 people live here permanently right in the mountains so it feels a little bit like Alpine European, Japanese, Russian very weird So before it really starts raining I quickly want to show you a shop that I'll just show you There's fireworks somewhere I don't see it though Now this is probably the most beautiful shop I have ever seen, it is all made of wood there is jade on the floor the thing that is the most incredible in the shop and they say that it's all real now I don't know if it's all real I have a feeling it is but if it is it is really unbelievable they have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 probably over 10 tusks of mammoths complete, look, they say this is a mammoth tusk this one is quite dark so that would mean that it would have absorbed a lot of minerals when it was buried they all come of course from Siberia they were buried there in permafrost that's how they are still in such a good condition but look at the size of this one it is enormous look at the price nearly 2 million Yuan this smaller one is a little bit cheaper that's 1.7 million Yuan but they got the complete set, see, so this is one tusk and then here is the matching other one see here they have all sorts of jewellery from different gemstones, now I am in China so I am always a little bit thinking, is this real, is it fake, they say everything here is real it's an extremely expensive shop, here is from the other side so you have one set here then a second set there and then a third and a fourth set right there, so there is already eight of them right here hey kitty so he is wearing a university t-shirt because he is a very smart cat he is a cute they also have these massive eggs unreal and look at the stairs here as well with all the jade you can see that, these are the stairs crazy place anyway on that note, I am going to end this video now, that was it for today I really hope you liked this video, if you did please give a big thumbs up, subscribe down below and then I will see you in the next video you can do it are you from Russia? no, Holland Holland what is this? are you going to try? you can buy some, wow it is so good I have never seen this before they don't have it in Chengdu no, we don't have it I have never seen this in the south of China, I think it is only in this one only in the north, yeah they also have roasted bran this is sugar ordered by Xiaoyu they use this one to make tea but it is a mushroom it grows on the trees this is all mushroom they are all the same it is natural, it is not burned or smoked it looks like wood it grows on the tree I chatted with the local people they said it is very good for your intestine if you have any stomachache or intestine problems you make tea from it and what are those? it is also mushroom it is a medical mushroom like magic? magic mushroom you go hallucinating Chinese people believe this is for longevity it makes you immortal immortal? and what is this? what is this? what it looks like? a stick it says it helps you to poo this is imported from Myanmar? it does not grow here look at these mushrooms they are mushroom they are enormous, what is this? the same thing wow medical mushroom so many different kinds of mushroom these are all dried mushrooms wow