Beijing to Ulan Baatar with local trains

Hey,
we just came from UB and went to China by local train, so I can only tell you the other way around. We paid about 17300 Mongolian Togrog for a hard sleeper to get from UB to a small town in Mongolia near the border (can't remember the name properly). We got on a bus for the short ride to the border crossing into Erlian. There we took a sleeper bus to Beijing for 200 Yuan. We left UB on a Wednesday and arrived Thursday morning. I don't know how often the train goes back to UB, but from UB I think it was almost every day. That's all I can say about it. Good luck!

Actually 160 USD isn't too far off from the government price. The international tickets are only sold through travel agencies and the government forces the price on them.

That said there are a variety of option but most will take you more time.

Option 1.
Probably the most common. Take the overnight bus from Beijing to Erlian, arrive in Erlian, arrange to pay for a ride across the border and catch the train on the other side. There is a daily slow train and several times a week the faster express train (this is the same train that crosses the border).

Option 2.
Buy a ticket to Erlian. There are only a few trains per week direct from Beijing.
#3 departs Beijing on Wednesdays for Moscow
#23 departs Beijing currently on Tuesdays and Saturdays but at somepoint (perhaps already passed) it will only operate once a week and which day is never clear.
#4652/4653 departs Hohhot for Ulan Bator twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. You take the train from Beijing to Jining South and then connect with this train to Erlian.

Get off in Erlian, cross the border and continue.

Option 3
A few intrepid travelers have reported buying a ticket from Beijing to Erlian and then buying a supplement from Erlian to UB on board. I wouldn't recommend this in summer or on the #3 train to Moscow, but on the #23 or the connecting from Hohhot, this might be worth considering.

Costs will depend upon whether you are traveling hard sleeper, soft sleeper or seat (only to the border). Even upper and lower berths have different prices. Tickets for domestic travel can be purchased at the train station.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/ will give your their prices for tickets. Buying them at the train station is cheaper.

The ride from Erlian to the Mongolian side costs about 80-100 yuan.

I don't have current information about fares from Dzamin ude to Ulan Bator but be aware that the earlier you get to the Mongolian side the better chance you have of getting a ticket same day to UB and Dzamin ude is reportedly a pretty miserable place with little to offer.

This post from summer 2007 by manulike with update from Nov 2008 has useful information: Erlian Fact Sheet.

Ruth

Hi Ruth,
thanks thats very helpful. on ecorrection though, for others who might read this. Travel agency told me the through trains go: Mon, Tue and Wed. at the moment. and travelchinaguide only has the time table and names the same prices you will pay at the train stations but they don´t book tickets. Normally in Beijing you can get tickets at any ticket selling office around town, but for this train they told me you have to go to Beijing train station. probably because it connects internationally.

so anyone knows for sure which days and what time trains from Dzamyn Ud to Ulaan Baatar go?

Thanks Nicole

Monday would be the train from Hohhot, Tuesday the K23 from Beijing and Wednesday the #3 from Beijing. There should still be a Friday train from Hohhot.

You asked:
>so anyone knows for sure which days and what time trains from Dzamyn Ud to Ulaan Baatar go?

I answered you above:
>There is a daily slow train and several times a week the faster express train (this is the same train that crosses the border).

The daily passenger trains from Dzamyn Ude to UB departs about 5 pm and arrives in UB the next morning about 10 am according to reports of others.

There is also the express train which would depart later the same days as the international trains from China. These trains probably leave about 10 pm or so and arrive about 3 pm in the afternoon.

Ruth

more information on my webpages, we just come back from Mongolia and go often there just read http://www.terramongolia.com

have nice trip

Our experience about the K3 train from Beijing to UB:

CITS and BGT travel in Beijing both offer tickets to UB for CNY 1128, which we found too expensive.

We bought soft sleeper tickets to Erlian, 13 hours, CNY 148. We couldn't find the foreigners office mentioned in the LP, so bought our tickets in the main ticket hall. At counter 10 there is a sign "tickets for foreigners", but the officer told us to go to counter 1 for tickets to Erlian.

On the train we bought a ticket from Erlian to UB on the same train (train was only half full). We paid CNY 465 for the soft sleeper. (Think there is no hard sleeper on this train). We also found a CITS office in the station in Erlain, they quoted CNY 500 to UB.

Although this is not as cheap as crossing the border by bus or taxi, it is still much cheaper than the CITS/BGT tickets from Beijing.

Now we are staying on Mongolia for a couple of weeks, but then we'll continu to Irkutsk. Does anybody know whether is it possible to do a similar thing to Irkutsk to same money?

Thanks!

Cheapest and shortest time traveling to Irkutsk is the bus to Ulan Ude and then the train from there to Irkutsk. Bus is daily and there are multiple trains.

The daily passenger train from UB to Irkutsk should be less than the faster international train that goes several times a week. There is a several hour layover at the border so you might be able to buy tickets to the border and then buy a supplement but I would not count on it.

Look for a report by Bugz who, I think, did something like this when traveling in the reverse direction.

Ruth