Trans-Mongolian Railroad

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An epic journey. We started off in Shanghai then travelled by air to Beijing where we embarked upon the Trans-Mongolian rail journey - 7865km. The first leg from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar was 1551km and took about 30hours. The second leg was from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk (1121km). This took around 24 hours with about 6 hours at the borders for customs checks. The final leg, Irkutsk to Moscow, was 5185km - 4 days.

Along the way we went from tropical conditions in Shanghai (25+ degrees) and Beijing (20+ degrees) to Ulaanbaatar and Irkutsk where the temperatures dipped below freezing at night. Moscow was grey and cold as well . . . colder in the day than in Irkutsk and Mongolia but not as cold at night.

China
China is a state in East Asia. The PRC has a coastline of 14,500 kilometres (9,010 mi), and borders (clockwise from south to northeast) Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea. Its capital is Beijing.

In China we visited 3 cities - Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou. We also visited the Great Wall of China at Badaling, near Beijing.

Mongolia

Mongolia is a large, fully landlocked country in East/Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south. Its capital and largest city is Ulaanbaatar.

The country contains very little arable land as much of its area is covered by arid and unproductive steppes with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately 30 percent of the country's 2.8 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic and one-third of the population lives in Ulaanbaatar.

In Mongolia, we spent 1 night in UB and 1 night in Terelj National Park where we spent the night in a ger.

Russia
The Russian Federation is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia. With an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by land mass, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It has the world's eighth largest population. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States and Japan across relatively small stretches of water.

We spent about 9 days in Russia - 2 days in Irkutsk, 4 days on the train from Irkutsk to Moscow and 3 days in Moscow.

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