Off the Lonely Planet Radar - Ever White Mountain and Heaven Lake

For the first time we trusted our Chinese enough to leave the (relatively) safe "Lonely Planet" territory. We ended up in Baishan, which is really close to China's biggest Nature Reserve "Chang Bai Shan-Ever White Mountain" including the "Heaven Lake" on top of a volcanic crater (2200 m high). Most of all, we're grateful for people's helpfulness, and many locals went out of their way to help us finding a place to stay, vegetarian food and a way to actually get to the Mountain Reserve.

The Mountain and the lake itself were magnificent. Although it was cold and misty, it surely is a very special place. The fact that it is bordering North Korea makes it even more mysterious.

Unfortunately, we aren't well equipped enough to go for longer hikes there. Also, one gets used to a life of luxury quite quickly, so we were glad to return to our room after a long day in the Nature Reserve.

Today we're in Tonghua, which seems to be a local coal town with all its characteristic "charms". Yet again, people prove to be kind and honest, which we really appreciate after sometimes being terrorized by touts in more touristy places.

From here, we'll be taking the night train to Harbin/ Haerbin, even further North with a strong Russian influence. We'll hopefully be seeing some nice Russian architecture and get hold of cheap vodka:).