Ulaanbaatar to Beijing
30 hours 15 minutes
One border, one bogie change
For the last leg of our Trans Siberian adventure we have a really nice modern train.
The train stopped at Choir. The birthplace of J Gurragchaa, Mongolia's first and only cosmonaut.
The train stopped at Choir. The birthplace of J Gurragchaa, Mongolia's first and only cosmonaut.
Green early morning Mongolia...
...soon changed to...
...dry Gobi Desert.
The way that Mongolian men seem to cool down in the heat is by pulling their shirts up and exposing their bellies. This is not the best example, there were many, more impressive stomachs on display.
The only way to cross the tracks
Time for another Bogie change. However, this time, unlike at the Poland/Belarus border, I am awake and looking out of the window, so I actually get to see how it is done.
Mongolia and Russia have 1,520 mm gauge (4 ft 11 5⁄6 in) tracks, and China has 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in).
After a lot of shunting backwards and forwards we roll into the shed. At first I think that there is another train already in the shed but then I realise that the carriages on the track next to us are actually from our train.
So now I know that the bogie change happens by lifting the carriages, one by one, high into the air, passengers and all, off one set of bogies and down again on another set of bogies!
The man on the next carriage looks more confused than me. It is 1am by this time and we have been at the border for over six hours.
We wake up to beautiful northern Chinese countryside.
And I am completely unprepared for the chaotic railway station at Beijing. Luckily we have our guide, Lv Yan,waiting for us on the platform ready to lead us out of the station and to the air conditioned hotel.
