Howdy all. I’ve been meaning to outline the places and route I took earlier this year when on the 3rd of May I left Beijing for to take the train across three countries – China, Mongolia and Russia – to far flung Moscow. Wait – is it Beijing that is far flung? I flew into Beijing on the 1st of May and I flew out of Moscow on the 20th. So nearly three weeks including time in Beijing and Moscow.
Basically, my itinerary was the following :
Beijing 1st – 3rd May (two nights)
One night on the train to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia
Ulaan Baatar (including one night in Terelj) 4th – 8th May (four nights)
Two nights on the train to Irkutsk (Russia)
Irkutsk 10th – 12th May (2 nights)
Two nights on the train to Ekanterinburg
Ekanterinburg 14th – 16th May (2 nights)
One night on the train to Moscow
Moscow 3 nights 17th – 20th May
So that’s a total of six nights on the train over four train trips. I took the K3 train from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar and also from Irkutsk to Ekanterinburg – that’s the official ‘Trans-Mongolian’ train. From Ulaan Baatar to Irkutsk I caught Train 263И, and from Ekanterinburg to Moscow my train was the 109M.
The highlights included –
Beijing – Great Wall of China, Forbidden Palace, great Chinese Food in Beijing.
Ulaan Baatar & Mongolia – exploring the city, temples, Palace of Bogd Khan, Mongolian dumplings, getting out Terelj and staying overnight in a ger (yurt), and climbing up the giant statue of Genghis Khan.
Iruktsk – Really pleasant, small city. Visiting historic houses, exploring and old ship, day trip to Lake Baikal and a good walk.
Ekanterinburg – the view of the city atop a tall building, the Icon Museum, learning the history of the Romanovs, free laundry at the Marins Park Hotel!
Moscow – St Basil’s Cathedral, Going to the symphony, seeing the embalmed body of Lenin, walking around Gorky Park, the State History Museum, Red Square… basically everything!
And that’s a short summary. For detailed information of my Trans-Mongolian train experience including videos, go follow these links –
Train Journeys – Beijing to Ulaan Baatar
Train Journeys – Ulaan Baatar to Irkutsk
Train Journeys – Irkutsk to Ekanterinburg
Train Journeys – Ekanterinburg to Moscow
Thanks for stopping by, May the Journey Never End!
You can check out my guest post on Etramping HERE! (full details of the Trans-Mongolian Journey)
Andy's World Journeys 
Great report. Overall was the train comfortable enough to get some decent sleep?
i dont generally sleep that well on moving transport but I got good sleep on most nights. bottom bunk is definitely preferable. thanks for commenting!
Hi. I’ve been enjoying your posts but have a question – how did you arrange hotels and side trips? How much were you able to arrange with realrussia? I’m most interested in Lake Baikal. I think I would like to spend 2-3 days exploring that area. Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks and keep on posting!
sorry to take 2 weeks to respond, i tend to reply to all the comments for a few weeks in one go. I arranged visa support and the tickets in Russia through Real Russia, accommodation was booked online. I used the Lonely Planet Trans Siberian as well for help. Lake Baikal is massive, and youd be able to spend as long as you like around it exploring. thanks for commenting!
Ah, good info; thanks for taking the time to reply!
Pleasure!
Would totally love to do this train ride too..is it too much hours spent on the trains though? Was the train ride very long?
the time goes surprisingly quickly, but all in all it’s six days and nights on board. and it’s the shortest of the routes!
Hahaha, so long yet so short…haha
lol 🙂
Even though I’ve been to many of the points on this route, I still want to take the train ride itself!
and actually id like to do a different route – the trans-siberian to Magadan. Yep, sort of the same. but longer!
Great round up, especially for a trip as big and long and unwieldily to plan (in my mind) as the Trans-Siberian. What was the food on the train like?
different restaurant carriage each country. The Russian food was the best, and very few if any used the restaurant car. Some trains didnt have one though, but you could buy noodles and chips and other snacks from the attendant and at the stations.
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