Imagine, dear viewer - you've just got off an overnight train from Beijing and you arrive at the crack of dawn in a strange and bustling foreign city (Chengde). You board a coach that climbs out of the city up a long steep hill and then plunges into a long, dark tunnel. Emerging, the coach descends onto a broad, flat plain. "We're here" shouted a voice. Bleary-eyed and weary, this is the utterly surreal sight that greeted me at Shuangtashan freight yard just 30 yards off the roadside. No fences, no restrictions, no hi-viz. No, it can't be real - can it?
