The key is flexibility!
I've heard too many horror stories, and experienced a few too, so we really wanted to make the Chinese to Mongolia border crossing an enjoyable but painless one. If I were to rate the desired experience on a scale, I'd put it "somewhere on the scale of nothing like Thailand to Vietnam" and "more adventurous than Vietnam to Cambodia" (which it seems we never wrote about).
Originally, we were to traverse the great Eurasian continent by train, from Beijing to Ulaanbataar to Irkutsk to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Timetables and our own deadlines dictated that we would have only spent 5 days in Ulaanbataaar, something with which we were always a little uncomfortable. In a strange set of circumstances, what with the Russian visa development, [maybe] meeting Oliver in Helsinki, Christine in Dublin and having already purchased tickets to connect the two; AND the Great Chinese Firewall standing between us and a functioning PayPal account* (needed to buy Beijing-UB train tickets from CITS), we made the decision to spend the period of time between our Chinese visas expiring (late May) and our flight from Helsinki to Dublin (early July), in Mongolia. The Russians [sort of] didn't want us, so this plan really was the only semi-logical one that had the bonus of allowing as much longer in Mongolia than originally planned.
Originally, we were to traverse the great Eurasian continent by train, from Beijing to Ulaanbataar to Irkutsk to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Timetables and our own deadlines dictated that we would have only spent 5 days in Ulaanbataaar, something with which we were always a little uncomfortable. In a strange set of circumstances, what with the Russian visa development, [maybe] meeting Oliver in Helsinki, Christine in Dublin and having already purchased tickets to connect the two; AND the Great Chinese Firewall standing between us and a functioning PayPal account* (needed to buy Beijing-UB train tickets from CITS), we made the decision to spend the period of time between our Chinese visas expiring (late May) and our flight from Helsinki to Dublin (early July), in Mongolia. The Russians [sort of] didn't want us, so this plan really was the only semi-logical one that had the bonus of allowing as much longer in Mongolia than originally planned.
While making our plans to get to Ulaanbataar, we realised that the "Trans-Mongolian" itself was a rather loose term that we could redefine to meet our own needs. As it was a travel dream, we decided that as long as we actually saw some of Mongolia by train, we could still say we did the Trans-Mongolian, even if not from Beijing and even if not literally to cross the China/Mongolia border.
Thanks to the amazing help of this wikitravel article and TripAdvisor contributors, we managed to get ourselves to Ulaanbataar from Beijing through a combination of public bus, metro, long-distance sleeper bus, dodgy hotel, jeep, train and a right-hand drive car (Mongolians have both left and right-hand drive, depending on whether they are Japanese or Russian cars!).
As far as booking trains through China, Mongolia and Russia goes, there is a lot of fear and a lot of misinformation (some of it intentional and some of it not). The process is so different and so confusing that Lonely Planet even have a book dedicated to the Trans-Siberian Railway and how you navigate the fear and confusion. We wanted to avoid some of the high prices charged by the likes of Real Russia and Vodka Train - although I am sure they do a great job of making it easier for you. Besides the high prices, we never had a fixed address to have anything mailed to, which seemed a pre-requisite for these services. PLUS who doesn't love trying it the "independent" way?
Trains from Beijing to Ulaanbataar only leave once a week, on a Wednesday. However, from Zamin-Uud, a tiny border town in Mongolia, they leave for Ulaanbataar daily, all we needed to do was get to the Mongolian border via long-distance bus. For inexplicable reasons, I don't think you can book the bus online or over the phone but with the help of TripAdvisor and the ever helpful "King Kong" and "Sharon" from 365 Inn (our Beijing hostel) we hatched a plan.
The Plan
1. 27 May - Muxiyuan Long Distance Bus Station, Beijing, China
2. 27 May - overnight bus to Zamin-Uud, "Outer Mongolia" as the Chinese refer to the Mongolian People's Republic. We were very desperate to ensure that we took a bus to Zamin-Uud and not to Erlian, the Chinese border town; our understanding was that border processing would be a lot easier if we could just stay on the bus (you cannot cross the Chinese/Mongolian border on foot).
3. 28 May - overnight train to Ulaanbataar train station.
4. 29 May - pickup from Sunpath Mongolia (one of THE GREATEST organisations we have come across on this trip).
For "The Execution" you will need to read Part II of this entry! Stay tuned!
*In a horror story that is still not resolved, PayPal suspended access to both of our accounts due to "unusual activity", a situation we were not able to resolve even with 2 weeks in Japan (outside the Great Firewall) and meant that we were unable to pay for our train tickets from Beijing to Ulaanbataar online. I highly recommend anyone planning to go on a trip like this, that you setup multiple PayPal accounts, just in case they arbitrarily decide to freeze your account. Here is a link to a discussion about where this has had nasty consequences.
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