Do it yourself - Beijing to Moscow train prices, Sept 2007

Replies: 5 - Last Post: 04-Jan-2010 02:02 Last Post By: everbrite

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manulike

08-Oct-2007 22:47
Posts: 313

Do it yourself - Beijing to Moscow train prices, Sept 2007

DO IT YOURSELF TRANS - MONGOLIAN TICKETS:

You can buy a Beijing-Moscow ticket at CITS office in Beijing for around 270 Euro.
You can buy Beijing to UB at CITS (63 Euro) plus another International ticket from UB to Moscow (77 Euro) = 140 Euro total!
You can do Beijing to UB in stages for 30 Euro plus the above 77 Euro = making it a total of a mere 107 Euro Beijing to Moscow!

CITS office in Beijing, inside the Beijing International Hotel. Here are the prices as of 27 May 2007, that were still valid in late September 2007 (when I was there):

All prices are in RMB and do NOT include the 50 Yuan booking charge with CITS.
Russian train is TRANS MANCHRIAN, via Chita etc!
Chinese Train is TRANS MONGOLIAN, via Ulan Bator etc...

Beijing to:
Ulan Bator - 595 / 657 Chinese/Mongolian trains - about 57 Euro
Ulan Ude - 940 / 1490 Chinese / Russian trains - about 90 Euro
Irkutsk - 1250 / 1649 Chinese / Russian trains - about 120 Euro
Krasnoyarsk - 1621 / 1983 Chinese / Russian trains
Novosibirsk 1850 / 2260 Chinese / Russian trains
MOSCOW 2752 / 3275 Chinese / Russian trains - about 260 / 310 Euro

Also note, that:
Beijing to Erlian on Mongolia border costs 143 Yuan (train number 3 on Monday and Tuesday) - about 13 Euro
Erlian to Zamiyn Uud is 66 Yuan - about 6 Euro
Zamiyan Uud to UB is 6400/18200 Tugrik (seat/sleeper) - about 4 / 12 Euro
UB to Sukbataar is 4200/6700/12600 (seat/plaskaartny/sleeper) - about 3 / 4 / 8 Euro

INTERNATIONAL TICKETS bought from HONG KONG (BEIJING to MOSCOW):
Monkey Business - 485 EURO...
Through the CITS website in China its US$387 (about 275 Euro)

INTERNATIONAL TRAIN PRICES bought from DARKHAN STATION - prices are in Tugrik and include all charges, correct as of late August 2007 (hence after the 15 August increas!) and are for 2/4 carridge, hence the Russian Coupe style cabin.
(for some reason, the Ulan Bator staff are VERY unfriendly and only sell the Irkutsk tickets!):

to Naushki only 14350 / 13350 - about 8 Euro - Mongolian / Russian train
toUlan Ude 25200 / 23550 - about 14 Euro
to Irkutsk 45650 / 41700 - 25 Euro
to MOSCOW 127750 / 134250 - 77 Euro

NOTE, the price of tickets bought INSIDE RUSSIA for PLASKAARTNY class (open dorm) is:
Ulan Ude to Moscow - 2400p - about 70 Euro
Vladivostok to Moscow - 4000p - about 115 Euro

So, it is actually CHEAPER and better to buy the International priced ticket in Mongolia!

any gay lads in Cardiff or South WALES

everbrite

09-Oct-2007 01:50
Posts: 16,247

It is interesting that you say that CITS charges only 63 Euro for the tickets from Beijing to UB since the price that they quote people who email them is about 115 USD which is about 82 euro. I wonder why the discrepancy.

Ruth

First check: Everbrite's travel pages, the New RU sticky,and New RU train sticky

Since I have taken the time to answer your question, it would be nice if you took the time to respond as to whether the information was helpful.

manulike

10-Oct-2007 07:04
Posts: 313

I got the prices at the Beijing International Hotel CITS office, in late September. And it is in foront of me now.
Even if they quote the higher fare of 657 on the Mongolian train plus 50 commision, that is still under US$100...

any gay lads in Cardiff or South WALES

mccabjo

07-Nov-2007 02:52
Posts: 5

I picked up this price list too - looks like manulike's price is for hard/kupe/2nd whereas everbrite's is for 1st/soft.

pattipegues

04-Jan-2010 00:56
Posts: 11

Your post was VERY helpful.
Do you know if this is still possible? I had a confusing response from someone saying I couldn't buy a ticket in Beijing from Beijing to UB...Something about asking the conductor once aboard.
We are travelling in April which I think is completely off-season. Do you think we will have trouble obtaining tickets in Beijing? If we want to travel one week after arrival?

Thanks,

Patti

everbrite

04-Jan-2010 02:02
Posts: 16,247

As you appear not to have read carefully what I wrote previously, I repeat. You CANNOT go to the train station in Beijing and buy a ticket from Beijing to UB.

The OP of this post, which btw is more than 2 years old, says the same thing. Tickets for this journey are ONLY sold through travel agencies such as CITS. In fact, he quotes the prices from CITS and gives you their location in Beijing.

You can contact CITS, www.cits.net or Richard Tian of Ocean Travel, whose email is oceantravelcn@yahoo.com.cn or richards@public3.bta.net.cn. Reportedly these companies are quite reliable about obtaining the tickets at a fair price and delivering them during the day to your hostel or hotel in Beijing. Be sure to add them to your address book so that your spam filter does not "Eat" their responses.

I understand that you are traveling in April. While this is not the high season, there are only TWO trains per week from Beijing which cross the border. Also if you are planning to buy tickets for the through train, it will not be any cheaper to wait until you get there as you MUST use a travel agency. If you want tickets for the through train then you might as well contact CITS or Ocean Travel now.

The alternative is what I described to you earlier in #3 this post. You can go to the train station yourself and buy a ticket to the border town of Erlian, also called Erenhot. While on the train, you can approach the conductor and ask to buy an extension across the border and on to Ulan Bator. This will be much cheaper than buying the same ticket through CITS or another Chinese travel agency as the agencies add a huge markup BUT it will require that you have some Chinese language skills and that you understand that you are taking a chance as there might not be berths on the train crossing the border.

Ruth

Edited by: everbrite

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