轉眼之間來到了在中國的最後一天，也就是說我的旅行準備邁入最後的1/3啦！昨晚在內蒙古呼倫貝爾草原上的中俄邊境城市滿洲里過夜，今天（6/4）下午我就要入境俄羅斯了。想到旅程只剩下1/3開始覺得不捨，但邊界另一端的世界同時又令我期待。進入最後的1/3意味著兩件事情：
1. 我這趟旅行中，不確定性最高的部分已經結束了。旅程的前2/3需要搭沒有路線圖的公車、沒有發車時間的客運班車，甚至有些路段必須要攔便車，而且這一切在前兩國都是在語言不通的情況下進行；中國的部分雖然相對容易，但因為我的證件無法實名認證，入境之前幾乎什麼都無法先訂。總之，這充滿不確定性的前2/3已經結束，特別感謝許多在遠方為我禱告的人，上帝的恩典是豐富的 :) 至於接下來的俄羅斯，基本上全部都已經訂好了，行程的變數也非常小，基本上就是每天照表操課了XD
2. 雖然俄羅斯是照表操課，但還是有許多讓我覺得的興奮的事物。我將從遠東地區搭西伯利亞鐵路往東跨越7個時區，並且在貝加爾湖畔過夜，一路上可以見到草原遊牧文化慢慢過度成突厥蒙古文化，再逐漸轉變為斯拉夫／東正教文化，最後還會拜訪二次大戰期間被俄羅斯侵吞而且從未歸還的原芬蘭領土，雖然沒有前2/3那麼刺激，也仍然是相當精彩呀！
最後記錄一下昨晚過夜的這個城市滿洲里。這是個白天看起來平凡無奇、但晚上燈光點起來馬上搖身一變成為拉斯維加斯的城市。這裡的建築物多少都會吸收一點歐洲／俄羅斯元素，但各家的風格又不太統一，白天看起來甚至有點雜亂；但到了晚上燈光一點，瞬間就變成了一座如賭城般的魔幻城市。若不是親自來過，很難相信在中國境內還有著這樣的一個地方。
Today is my last day in China. This afternoon I'm going to enter Russia. This implies I've finished the first 2/3 of my trip, and am about to enter the last 1/3! A couple of facts about this last 1/3:
* It's more predictable than the first 2/3. During the first 2/3, I often had to take city buses without route map, long-distance bus without departure time, and occasionally hitchhike. Also my travel document for China made it harder for me to book tickets in advance. Thankfully, all these had passed! Thanks to everyone who pray for me faithfully on the other side of the earth. God's grace is abundant :)
* Although not as advantureous, it's still exciting. I'm going to take the Trans-Siberian railway and visit Lake Baikal (and stay by the lake!). I'll be able to see the transition from North Asian nomadic culture to Turkic-Mongol, and then to Slavic/Orthodox. At the end I'll also visit an area where Finland succeed to Russia and never gets back after WWII. It's going to be fun!
Also want to quickly mention the city I stayed last night: Manzhouli, or Manchuria, a city on the China-Russia border. Many buildings incorporate some European/Russian styles, but they look out of sync during the day; at night, however, when the spotlights are on, the city is turned into Las Vegas. Unless you see it, you wouldn't believe such a place exists in China!
