On sending to the station to inquire what time our train left in the evening, they declared there was no train at all, and that the date of the weekly express from Vladivostock had been changed from Monday to Sunday. We felt so convinced that this was a mistake, having inquired about it at Kharbin only two days previously, that we went down to the station in good time for the usual 9 o’clock train, and were rewarded by learning that the hour and not the date of the train had been altered, and that it would pass through Ashiho at 10 o’clock. After waiting for an hour in the restaurant, where a party of the attendants were playing cards, the ticket office was opened, but they absolutely refused to sell tickets to us, saying that the express only stopped for half a minute, and that we could not get into it. We vainly protested that having no registered luggage we would take our chance of getting into the train, and that we _must_ go by it, as we had the long journey to Irkutsk before us. The reiteration of this fact for about five minutes without stopping at last began to tell, and the official said he must see what small luggage we had. After due inspection he agreed to let us have tickets, but we had to pay for them from a point about fifty miles up the line, which meant twenty-one roubles instead of the four and a half we had paid on coming. The next difficulty was that the ticket office contained no change and seemed unable to get any, so we had to borrow the requisite amount from our friends. When the train did arrive each of our friends stood ready holding an article of luggage ready to hurl it into the corridor, and of course there was no difficulty in getting both our belongings and ourselves into it. We were soon comfortably established in the coupé which we were to occupy for the next two days, that is, until we should reach Irkutsk, where all passengers have to change.