Confusing departure from Russia

Confusing departure

I woke around 0500 local time due to the 1h time difference from Birobidzhan.  So, it wasn’t a problem at all getting to the bank for its opening hour at 0830.  Despite our concern with time, it only took 5 mins and we were out at 0835!

We returned to the hotel to check-out and was on our way to the port at 0910, getting there at 0930.

There was a bit of language barrier in purchasing the ticket.  The lady asked some questions that we couldn’t understand and as a result, there was a bit of delay.

Eventually, she gave us our tickets, with D being charged a lower price than my ticket, which seemed substantially lower than the online price.  We were also told to report to different terminals.  We had heard that different nationalities were processed through different terminals.

We waited briefly before attempting to go through security and immigration.  That’s when the confusion started!

• I had tried to go through Terminal 2 (as directed) where all the Russians were, but was re-directed to Terminal 1 where all the Chinese nationals were.
• Staff at Terminal 1 asked a flimsy printed slip which I didn’t have, as I had a computer-generated boarding card. I eventually learnt that was the port tax slip and I showed them that my boarding card included the port tax amount already.  Seemingly, they don’t see these boarding cards as all the Chinese passengers have the flimsy printed port tax slip.
• Even though D had the printed port tax slip, they denied him entry. He eventually found that he had been sold a port tax slip for a bus departure whereas I had boarding pass for a boat trip which included the corresponding port tax.  We couldn’t work out why we had been put on two different modes!
• At that point, we went our separate ways with D going to the bus. I went to Terminal 2 to await my departure.  D had to come back as we both realised that he had no RUB in case there were more surprises.
• I had realised that the printed amount on my boarding card was about RUB1000 (NZD21) less than what I had paid. The face value corresponded well to the online price and I believe I was undercharged accidentally.

When the time came for me to go through immigration and boarding, all went well.  The staff here knew the boarding card format well and the fact that it included the port tax.

It was apparent that all the passengers on board were Russians and none were Chinese.

Arrival in Heihe

The boat left promptly at 1200 and arrived 15 mins later at 1115 Chinese time.

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The long arrival queue began with a port tax payment of CNY60 payable in cash.  I tried paying by WeChat but the facial response given didn’t look positive but I didn’t really understand the words.

Once paid, I joined the immigration queue.  I exited the arrival hall 50 mins after I had joined the queue.

With the chaos around the area, I walked out to the road to order a car to the Baiyue Hotel (which was translated as Park Hyatt on some apps).

Getting to the hotel around 1230, I was impressed by the place.  It was very fancy for NZD50 and included a sauna and bathhouse at an extra charge.

The hotel was very fancy for just NZD50 per night.

Post-mortem

I grabbed a simple lunch nearby before settling into the room.  D messaged around 1415 to say that he had arrived.

We had a catch-up while he ate his KFC roasted whole chicken, pop-corn chicken and tart.

I learnt that:

• He had been sold a port-tax for the bus and the reason his counter transaction was so cheap was that he had to pay for the fare separately in CNY.
• He had to wait a long time before his bus departed around 1300 Blagoveshchensk time.
• His border clearance was swift whereas mine took about an hour. His combined travel and immigration time was probably only 30-40 mins longer than mine.
• So, despite leaving an hour later than me, he got to the hotel only 1h45 after me.

We tried to make sense of the confusion.  There were various possibilities:

• Perhaps Chinese nationals can travel only on Chinese transport and Russians on Russian transport,
• Perhaps on the Russian side, they can only sell tickets on Russian transport. Hence D was only sold a port tax and had to pay for the bus in CNY.
• Perhaps there were no Chinese on my Russian boat was that all the Chinese were on round-trip tickets sold on the Chinese side on Chinese transport only.
• For me, being neither Chinese nor Russian, I was sold a ticket on a Russian transport because that was what they could sell.

Rest of the day

After resting in the afternoon, we took a taxi to Heihe’s night market.  Soon after we had our first snack, it started raining.

We retreated to place specialising in north-eastern style hotpot loaded with chicken feet, ribs, potato, corn and enoki mushrooms.  While I ate selectively, I was still very full at the end of the meal.

One observation in this part of China is that there are very few electric cars.  We were told that they simply don’t go as far in winter compared to in summer as batteries don’t perform well in the extreme cold.  There are still many petrol cars, including some old Santanas!