Somewhere in Inner Mongolia, there is a city glowing in the darkness:

It’s called 满洲里 (Manzhouli), and it is glowing with money:

Outpost of 200.000, and China’s busiest land port of entry, this is where more than half of all Russian imports and exports pass through…

…as well as one arm of the Trans-Siberian Railway:

Yes, the two dancing bears seem to have every good reason to be celebrating their successful partnership:

The money influx has created a 满洲里 where most of the buildings are not older than 10 years and portray an interesting architectural mix:

All out freestyle.

The wealth is even spreading to the outskirts, where it seems as though someone has attempted to create a hôtel de ville, or maybe just a veritable castle:

When we got closer we discovered that it was a visitor center and that the bricks in front of the doors probably meant that it was not going to host any visitors these days:

There was a collection of Russian statues next to the building. I particularly liked one of Ю́рий Гага́рин (Yuri Gagarin), the first man in space, who was made out to look a bit like Gort, one of the first alien robots on Earth:

Then there were the Матрёшка (Matryoshka) dolls, hundreds of them, each portraying a somewhat prominent public figure:

…there was one of Garfield the cat in close proximity to the historical Gentleman above.

…

When we were on our way back from Inner Mongolia to Shanghai, I noticed that the festivities of the nation’s 60th anniversary were definitely over:

Hopefully this was going to leave some room for the people…

…for the more important things in life.

Soundtrack: Cavalera Conspiracy – “Black Ark”