1. Summer 2016: From Moscow to Hong Kong in 18 days by
land (7200 km), air (2400 km) and water (60 km)
Macau
.
Baikal lake

2. Joining my son Stefan on Sunday
evening 17th July in Moscow, he had
departed by train 2 days before from
the Netherlands! Picture is taken
from the terrace bar of Ritz Carlton,
with the Moscow Kremlin in the
background.
The beginning, in Moscow
Monday evening 18th July:
Boarding the night train to Kazan at
Moscow Kazanski train terminal.

3. Kazan, capital of autonomous Republic of Tatarstan
Tuesday morning 19th July: arrival
at Kazan train station after 12
hours/800 km in the train.
The Kazan Kremlin with the famous
mosque. Thanks to oil Tatarstan is a very
rich autonomous Republic, population is
mainly islamic and speaks both Tatar and
Russian language.

4. Ekaterinenburg, known for the massacre of the Romanovs
Wednesday morning 20th July: Arrival at
Ekaterinenburg train station after a 14
hour/900 km train ride from Kazan. Time
here is 2 hours ahead of Moscow but all
train stations in Russia adhere to the
Moscow time zone.
In 2003 a Cathedral was consecrated at the
place, where the Czar of Russia and his wife
and children were executed by the
Bolshevists in March 1918.

5. Novosibirsk, informal capital of Siberia
Thursday afternoon 21st July: arrival
at Novosibirsk train station after a
1600 km/19 hour trip from
Ekaterinenburg. Time here 3 hours
ahead of Moscow, outside the train
station!
The Opera building of Novosibirsk,
picture taken from the terrace bar of
the recently constructed Marriott Hotel!
We celebrated the 23rd birthday of Stefan
in ‘La Maison’, the very best French style
restaurant of Novosibirsk!!!

6. 29 hours/1800 km from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk (22-23 July)
Western Siberian landscapes are not
that different from Europe
You can also take this train in 1 go from
Moscow to Vladivostok, takes you 6 days!

7. Irkutsk, the informal capital of Eastern Siberia
Listvyanka is a popular beach resort, 70
km from Irkutsk. It is at the shore of
Lake Baikal, the largest sweet water lake
in the world! On the picture we are
posing with some Mexican train friends,
they happened to know very well 1 of
my Sealed Air colleagues in Mexico!
Above the central square of Irkutsk and below
an outlet type shopping mall with wooden
houses in Old Siberian style

8. 23 hours/1000km from Irkutsk to Ulan Bator (4 hours waiting
time at Russian-Mongolian border!)
Boarding in Irkutsk on Monday morning 25th July
The Eastern Siberian steppe landscape is quite different from Europe
Arrival at Ulan Bator train station on Tuesday
morning 26th July. Time here 6 hours ahead of
Moscow, both inside and outside the train station!

9. Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia
Genghis Khan square
in the centre of Ulan
Bator
The Mongol population adheres
to the Buddhist religion. In this
temple in Ulan Bator a gigantic
Buddha statue was erected.

10. The steppes of Mongolia
Mongolian steppe landscape with characteristic white nomad tents, can also be visited inside
After thousands of kilometres
from Moscow to Ulan Bator
with the iron horse, now some
real horse riding! And of course
Genghis Khan on our way again
as well!

11. Finally in China!
On Saturday 30th July, family was
reunited at Beijing Railway
Station. My wife Elisabete joined
us in Beijing with a direct flight
from Amsterdam!
On Sunday 31st July we visited
the Chinese wall, just north of
Beijing.

12. Beijing-Shanghai: the last train ride …
From upper left
clockwise on
Monday 1st August:
Boarding the high
speed train at
Beijing South
Station, landscape
in Eastern China
greener again, after
4 hours crossing the
Yangtze river with the city of Nanjing in the background and
arrival at Shanghai Hongqiao railway station after 1060 kilometres in less than 5 hours!

13. Shanghai: the new China!
RadissonBlu
restaurant with
Shanghai Skyline in
the background
(left) and a final
night cap at the
Bund in Bar Rouge
(right). The Weber
family never gets
enough of skylines!
OK, one more train! This magnetic levitation train
serves between Shanghai business district and
Pudong international airport. It bridges 30 km in 8
minutes. Especially at the curves you feel the
difference with a conventional train, losing touch
with ground!

14. Macao: Portuguese landscape with Chinese population
Against our habit we took a
plane from Shanghai to Macau
on Wednesday 3rd August!
The flight takes 3 hours.
Building style in the old centre of Macao is totally Portuguese,
even the pedestrian stone bricks are equal to Portugal or Brazil!
All street signs are bilingual Chinese/Portuguese, but
unfortunately most people don’t speak Portuguese!
Outside the old centre is a different story: all building styles/monuments of Europe have been
recreated, making Macao with its casinos the Las Vegas of the East. According to latest develop-
ments, it is probably more accurate to denominate Las Vegas as the Macao of the West!

15. Hong Kong: one more skyline city!
On Friday 5th August we took less than an hour with the very comfortable Turbojet from
Macao to Hong Kong (60 km)
Ritz Carlton Hong Kong houses the Ozone bar on the 118th floor. It is the highest sky bar
in the world with stunning views and excellent Heineken beer!

16. In 12 hours back from Hong Kong to Amsterdam (9300 km)
The way back by plane went
much quicker, for the better
and for the worse. The 6 hour
time difference that I had
built up gradually during the
Eurasian train ride, was
eliminated in half a day again.
Now I understand why they
call this jet lag!
Departure on Sunday morning 7th August from Hong Kong Interna-
tional airport, our son Stefan remains in Asia for a 6 months
internship in Beijing. Sunday evening we were picked up by our
other 2 children Felipe and Larissa at Amsterdam Schiphol airport.