Beijing - Our Introduction to China

We disembarked at Beijing main railway station filled with trepidation.  We had been led to believe that Beijing was chaos at the best of times but that this week it would be absolute carnage.

The mid autumn festival (also known as Mooncake Day) falls on the full moon of the eighth lunar month and National Day is held every 1st  October to celebrate the formation of the People's Republic of China.  This year, both holidays fell on 1st October and as a result there was a week long national holiday, second only to the Chinese New Year holiday.

Heading beyond China's Firewall

We are heading to China tomorrow morning by train, arriving in Beijing Friday afternoon, just at the madness that promises to be the big Chinese autumn holiday (Golden Week).

We will try to update via email but we will only be able to upload one photo per post.

Trans Siberian - Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar to Beijing

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

Ulaanbaator toBeijing

This was last leg of our Trans Siberian journey.  We could not believe how quickly that journey had flown past, how much we had seen and how the landscape had changed as we passed through Europe to Asia and Siberia, and south through Mongolia.  Now we were heading to Beijing, our last destination on this part of our trip, the huge capital of China.

This time we had both bottom bunks but an older Australian couple, part of an organised tour which had started in eastern Europe, also ended up sharing with us so we gave them a bottom bunk, knowing it would be more comfortable.  We are sure not a lot of people would have done this but we just thought karma.

Trans Siberian - Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

 

Ulan Ude to Ulaanbaatar

This train was one of the tourist trains, so called because it is has fewer carriages train and the majority of passengers are western tourists making the trip from Russia to Mongolia. There are an assortment of travellers, independent like us, or those with organised tour groups.  

We boarded the train early again and we soon discovered that there only one Russian family in our whole carriage - the rest were westerners.

Trans Siberian - Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

Ekateringburg to Irkutsk

It was another early start, and this was to be the longest leg of our journey – 2 whole days and nights on the train! We were still a little dazed after the last journey, and our fleeting stay in Ekateringburg hadn’t really given us the opportunity to recover. We boarded the train at about 6.30am and found that we were sharing our compartment with a young couple in their very early twenties. To our dismay, we had both top bunks again, and on this occasion it was the worst possible arrangement.

Trans Siberian - Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

Vladimir to Ekateringburg

This journey was a whole different story altogether.  We boarded the train at about 7.30pm and we were thrilled that we had one upper and one lower bunk, our favourite combination!  This was going to be a long journey of just over 24 hours so we wanted to be comfortable, and also to be able to gaze out of the window.

Trans Siberian - Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

St Petersburg to Moscow

Although we had travelled all the way from London by train, technically this was the beginning of our Trans Siberian/Trans Mongolian adventure. We arrived at the station in St Petersburg at around 11.30pm in plenty of time for our train which was due to leave at about 12.40pm.  All Russian railway stations are manned by police and all passengers are required to enter the station through security gates and pass luggage through x-ray machines although we never saw anyone stopped and searched in all our time in Russia.

Trans Siberian - Part 1 - Introduction

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - St Petersburg - Moscow - Vladimir
Part 3 - Vladimir - Ekateringburg
Part 4 - Ekateringburg - Irkutsk - Ulan Ude
Part 5 - Ulan Ude - Ulaanbaatar
Part 6 - The Final Leg - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

The journey on the train warrants an entire story of its own and I have decided devote a series of posts for this part of our trip alone for anyone who has a particular interest in the train journey, or who might be thinking to take the trip themselves.   It also deals with our experiences along the way on the train. 

Warning:  May Contain Alcohol