Beijing to Ulaan Baatar

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Day 1 On the Train at last



Last night's Hotel (arranged by the Sundowners travel company was a little ho hum after the comfortable facilities of the Holiday Inn. Luckily it was only for one night.

We found a nice restaurant for dinner last night only a short walk from the hotel. We had a couple of beautiful curries two beers and a vegetable dish, plus desert of ice-cream and tiramisu cake.

Yesterday afternoon we discovered (along with 100,000 Chinese) the Beijing Lake. It is a beautiful lake in the middle of Beijing running alongside the Forbidden city and then on towards the North Gate of the old city. It was full of paddle boats and even some people swimming in the lake which reminded us of the bold and the beautiful swimmers from Manly (but these people were really brave to swim in the water!!). Lots of cafes and cafes lined the shores, boat hire places, men fishing, artists wanting to draw your portrait etc.

We were concerned (our Allan was) about getting to the Beijing train station this morning as we about a 1km from both the metro stations and the walk with full suitcases and backpacks was looking daunting. But the lord provided a free taxi at the end of the lane the hotel was situated in. Immediately we crossed the road he was there. (this got us to the station 2 hours ahead of schedule but who cares).

Left Beijing this morning on our way on an overnight train trip to the capital of Mongolia Ulaanbaatar.

The train left precisely at 11.22am and we travelled first through the suburbs of Beijing and then into the mountainous surrounds of the city as we proceeded NW towards Mongolia. After 2 hours of mountains we then ventured onto a flat plain which travel on with the occasional mountains appearing . The soil has changed to the loess of the Shanxi province.

The border crossing last night was an amazing engineering feat in itself. The Chinese and Mongolia railways run on different gauges and in the middle of the border they jack up the carriages and changed the bogeys while we were still on the train. The whole operation took about 4 hours including the customs and immigration procedures on both sides. The countryside all morning was Mongolian grassland all the way to Ulaanbaatar.

We have now arrived in Ulaanbaatar. The inner city is just like any other major city with high rise, main squares etc. Surrounding the city are suburbs of yers and houses mixed in together. Many families seem to have both a house and a yer. Tomorrow we will explore the city with a guide and a driver. As we approached the city the haze was bad, but it turns out there is bushfire just north of the city.

Dinner tonight is with a friend of Peter Ellis who is working here. Looking forward to dinner with Patrick

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Photos

Beijing Station
Just about to board the train

In our cabin
Only another 20hours to UB

Midnight
Changing the Bogeys at the border

Mongolian landscape
This is before it got really flat

Comments

[Tiggy]

Hello from windy Sydney
Keep up the good blogging and photos, we're enjoying your trip. How is the food on the train? Do you sleep on the train when you have an overnight stay? Love Ross and Julianne

[AlandJule]

The low down on the train
The food was average chinese backstreet fare. Nothing you'd want want to eat except with there was nothing else available. once we crossed into Mongolia we got a new dining car and the quality rose dramatically. We slept well once they stopped playing with the carriages and the immigration was finished but that was 2am

[Warwick]

I met to know more about the red. I did not like the look on Julie's face

[AlandJule]

The Train Wreck Red
What can one say about a Cabernet Savigon of unknown origin bought on chinese train. it was a sweet wine with little bouquet except a slight hint of diesel and neeedd a lot of air before drinking. In the end we donated the remaining halve to the train staff.