Hi-we're planning a trip to Beijing and picking up Trans Mongolian to Moscow in Sept 2003. Would love to hear from anyone with any experience of same. Thanks.

The tickets are easily bought in Beijing from the International Rail Ticket Office in the Beijing International Hotel.<BR><BR>There are three classes, of which you should opt for the ordinary class, equivalent to soft sleepers on domestic trains, or the top class--two beds in a compartment with access to a small washroom shared with the neighbouring compartment. The middle class is merely the lower class with antimacassars.<BR><BR>The first day you pass under the Great Wall near Badaling, and late that evening go through customs at the China/Mongolia border. It takes some time for the bogies to be changed on the carriages--the line switches from standard gauge (as used in Europe) to a broader gauge, and the carriages are hoisted up, and the bogies swapped.<BR><BR>In the morning you wake to flat and fairly featureless grassland, and the dining car is now Mongolian (with a pretty good borscht last time I went this way). In the early afternoon you arrive at Ulaan Baatar, and late that evening go through formalities at the Mongolian/Russian border.<BR><BR>The following morning you awake on the shores of Lake Baikal and spend much of the day trundling round the edge. The next few days you see nothing by pines, silver birch, and the odd cottage, with pauses at shoddy Soviet-era cities of astonishing hideousness.<BR><BR>The menu in the dining car (now Russian) is extensive, but only about 10% of what it promises is actually available, and some of those dishes cannot be told from each other. Nevertheless, it's hearty stuff, and with enough variety to keep you going, although you should take plenty of your favourite snacks with you.<BR><BR>I took plenty of reading matter, but what with chatting to friends made on the train (some of whom remain friends years later) and simply gazing mesmerized out of the window, very little reading got done.<BR><BR>As you cross into Europe at the Urals, there's a sign at the side of the track, and the train hoots. There's no better way to get a real sense of distance travelled, and I'd happily do the trip again.<BR><BR>Nearly a week with no way for anyone to bother you...<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Thanks again Peter for the valuable info. I appreciate your input. Best rgds.

Hi Lyndie,<BR>I did the trip in July of last year and wrote a travel diary on my experience.<BR>Russia and Mongolia was especially exciting!<BR><BR>www.travelhall.com/feature/diaryindex.asp<BR> <BR>I am the author, &quot;The Nomad&quot;.<BR>Good luck with your plans.

Thanks, nomadic for the information. We are hoping SARS is under control by then! Best regards.