Changsha -> Beijing -> Ulan Bator -> Irkutsk -> Yekaterinburg

It will be apparent to anyone in possession of a map that this route required a fair amount of time spent on trains. In addition to being vast and sparsely populated, Russia and Mongolia are moderately friendly, but not nearly as much so as China. Whereas Chinese people have all seemingly internalized the notion that foreigners are a cultural and economic gift to be cherished and cultivated, Russians seem to accept them with knowing apathy, as if to say, "Who wouldn't want to frolic in the meadows where Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky once toiled?" As in China, however, the twentieth-century communist interlude is neither embraced nor entirely renounced. The main drag of Irkutsk is lined with fancy cafes and European shops, but its name is Karl Marx Street, and there's a statue of Lenin at the end of it.