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Hello fellow travelers,

I am planning to fly in on Urumqi around the 1st of October with a friend. We want to spend 2 days in Urumqi and then would like to travel to Olgii for the Golden Eagle Festival.

A couple of questions:
- How long does it take to travel to Ölgii over land and which boarder crossing is the most convenient to go enter Mongolia?
- Is it easier/better to do this organized (from Urumqi to Olgii?)
- Will we encounter 'problems' in Urumqi and traveling towards Olgii because of the situation in Xiangyang?

Thank you for all your advice.

Greetings,

Max

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Hi Max,
 
According to your questions, here has some references for you that I searched on Chinese website.
-       From Urumqi to Bayan-Olgii, the only border is call hongshanzui port which located Altay prefecture. You can take bus or train from Urumqi to Altay around 10 hours around 700km. but the problem is the border only open in June, July, August, September since the winter is cold and snow. So if you go in Oct proboly is impossible if the information is true. You can double check it.
-       The safely option is you can take an international train to Ulaanbaatar from Beijing, or the cheaper way from Beijing to Erenhot crossing border to Mongolia. From Beijing to Erenhot 720km.
-       About the ‘problem’ I couldn’t find any information about that in china internet.
 
Hope you will find out the solution.
 
Best wishes,
 
Xiaoling
 

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You mean situation in Xinjiang, not Xiangyang. Urumqi these days is a very tense place, and I suggest that you move on as soon as possible. The poster above is Chinese and while trying to be helpful, is clearly unaware of the issues involved.

The border you are looking to cross is Tashiken - Bulgan. It is the only border between Xinjiang and Mongolia that is open to international visitors. You would then have to get from Bulgan to Olgii inside Mongolia. Hongshanzui crossing, besides being in the mountains and subject to weather closures, is not available to cross by foreigners. So don't go to Altay expecting to get across.

The Tashiken-Bulgan border is open year-round Monday-Friday roughly 10:30-13:45 and from 15:30-18:45. Closed weekends and I believe closed holidays. Which is a problem for your timing, since China has a huge national holiday Oct 1-7. Not only will the border be closed for at least part if not all of that period, but you will have a big problem getting any means of public transport from around Sept 28 on. It's not considered a particularly challenging border to cross, particularly from China into Mongolia. There is some sort of local bus service that can get you across. Note that you must already have a Mongolian visa if your nationality requires one, as visas are not available at the border and Urumqi does not have a Mongolian Consulate.

My suggestion is that you move your timing forward and try to get out of China and into Mongolia by Friday 27 of September. That leaves you more time to kill in Mongolia before the Festival starts, but maybe you can deal with this. Do more research on the Urumqi - Tashikan transport linkage and the border crossing procedure itself, there are recent descriptions around the internet. Alternatively, figure out a way to fly to Ulan Bator and then get to Olgii from within Mongolia, that doesn't involve going through China. The Chinese visa--if you don't already have one--can be quite expensive depending on where you are from and if you have to go through a service centre and pay extra fees.

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Your first issue is going to be finding a hotel in Urumqi: not that many hotels in the city will accept foreigners, so make sure you find one that does, and book in advance.

Urumqi has at times been horrible in recent years, with invasive checkpoints nearly every time you walk into a building, and harassment from police and quasi-police at times even just while walking the streets. It seems to ebb and flow. I haven't been to the city recently enough to know exactly what you should expect at the moment.

Elsewhere, northern Xinjiang (where there aren't all that many Uighurs, particularly outside of Urumqi) tends to be rather calmer than southern Xinjiang. Certainly expect a lot of checkpoints though. In my experience, police are much more likely to hassle you if you give the impression that you want to spend the night in their town. They're much less likely to bother you if you're just passing through on your way somewhere else. But certainly expect some problems.

I have no experience of the border crossing, but there's been at least one recent report on here.

About the ‘problem’ I couldn’t find any information about that in china internet.

Well there you have one of the biggest problems in and of itself.


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Thank you all for your feedback. Currently below is our travel plan.

26-sep Urumqi
27-sep Urumqi
28-sep Urumqi
29-sep Travel to boarder
30-sep Boarder to Olgii
1-okt Hike
2-okt Hike
3-okt Hike
4-okt Hike/ Ölgii
5-okt Ölgii
6-okt Ölgii
7-okt Travel
8-okt Travel
9-okt Camel
10-okt Camel
11-okt Camel
12-okt Travel
13-okt Ulanbator

So we might need to cross the boarder earlier. Anyone knows an email address of phone number to check when the Tashiken - Bulgan boarder is open?

Furhermore, anyone tips for how to travel by private jeep and/or bus within Mongolia?

Thank you again!

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