In the North East (東北 Dong Bei) Region of China, Manzhouli 滿州里 is the last Chinese town before going into Russia.  There is a “Nation’s Gate,” a structure striding over a railroad track and a highway connecting the two countries.  Barbwire fences extends out left and right.  Two or three hundred yards over to the Russia side, there are Russian fences. In the middle of the neutral zone, we could see one of the border stones.  The locals told us that the border stone was further away sometimes ago before the fences were build. The  fence and the neutral vacuum zone not only stopped undocumented immigrants from crossing but also stopped the wandering border stones from moving.  That strip of waisted land  sort of reminds me of the strip of waisted land in front of the Berlin wall before it was taken down.  The Nation’s Gate is a horizontal bar resting at two ends on two square vertical columns, sort of like a glorified pedestrian crossover on a roadway.. The bar is a corridor onto which you can get a ticket to go up, looking into the bare ground on the Russian side. Some hundred yards inside the Chinese side there are some houses and shops.  We claimed up to an observation rooftop on one of them.  There we could also look into the same bare ground on the Russian side, perhaps a few feet less than what we could see from the ticketed Gate. From the observation roof top, our tour guide led us down a stair case into a gift shop as you would expect.  Also as expected, the Merchandise are typical Russian flavored, actually quite interesting and attractive: Layered dolls, amber and agate jewelries, Faberge eggs, and many of them.  I was surprised to see so much interest in Faberge eggs.   When I look closely, to my surprise again, they are not called Faberge eggs but toothpick holders.  When you press down at the top of the well decorated, colorful and gilded eggs, the middle part  pops up for a goodly amount of toothpicks.  It was so cliche and dumb looking I did not want one.  Now I regret.  It would at least make a funny conversation piece.  Other than that, all over town you will find expensive as well as cheap jewelries made of amber, agate, and mammoth tusk.  Yes, mammoth tusk.  Apparently ivory is banned for commercial use but not  “mammoth tusks” which looks and feels just like ivory.  It is harder and rarer as I would guess. I think ivory is banned because it takes lives and will cause extinction. Well, Mammoth is extinct anyway. I really did not expect that much existing.  Well, they were buried only a few thousand years ago, under snow.  So, they are preserved by coldness, not fossilized  by volcanic rocks.  Presumably a lot came out of Russia. A recent news item says the Chinese authority caught an illegal shipment of more than a ton! I wish I had money to buy a mammoth teeth jewlry, a real piece of history, or, prehistory. I did, however, bought a 925 silver bracelet, made in Russia but with Chinese motive, a pair of dragons.  I was told, the “state capitalist” of Chinese government bought (maybe rent, for 99 years) a huge piece of land in Siberia. This huge company, the state, then moved many manufactories there.  Instead of hiring locals, they shipped a lot of Chinese labors there to produce a lot of high end product as well as “cheap exports.”  They use the local wood, even local mineral (mining resources) to produce tax free and duty free products, well, sort of.  In any case, the profit is huge for the “state company” who is the authority, the boss, the financier, employer, and oh, yes,  the union boss too, all in one.  Presumably, that is where my 925 silver bracelet came from.