While travel agencies are *really* a thing here, currency exchange seems to be strange here.

Finding a travel agency who could issue me a cross-border ticket to Russia took me less than 10 minutes, I was searching for a currency exchange for over two hours - unsuccessfully. Even the banks were astonished when I asked them whether I could exchange money.

After three hours, I was finally told that the regional headquarter of the Bank of China does currency exchange and this is where I'm waiting now. It btw. took almost 10 minutes until I could clarify that I don't understand Russian.

I'm slightly nervous because my  🤝🏽  train is leaving in less than an hour and I know how picky Chinese railway workers are when it comes to international trains. I will time-gap waiting here to 15 more minutes and otherwise cross the border with just my 20.000 spare Ruble hoping for an exchange opportunity in Russia even though the rates will be much worse there.

While I expected a boring printout of an  online ticket, I was handed a wonderful classic ticket booklet consisting of the cover booklet ticket, distance fare, sleeper ticket and transport remarks - all written in Chinese, Russian and - of course - German.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail