Route p265Trans-Mongolian
The Route p290Trans-Manchurian
The
p301B›ij¸ng
Ulan-Ude p176Krasnoyarsk to
Lake Baikal:
p250Mainline (BAM)The Baikal-Amur
Krasnoyarsk p144Yekaterinburg to
p93St Petersburg
p58Moscow
p119Yekaterinburg
Vladivostok p216Ulan-Ude to
Moscow to
MONGOLIA
C H I N A
R U S S I A
YOUR COMPLETE DESTINATION GUIDE
In-depth reviews, detailed listings
and insider tips
SURVIVAL GUIDE
Directory A–Z .................. 378Transport ......................... 394Health ............................... 403Language & Glossary ..... 407Index ................................. 430Map Legend ..................... 438
VITAL PRACTICAL INFORMATION TO
HELP YOU HAVE A SMOOTH TRIP
ON THE ROAD
Russian belongs to the Slavonic language family and is closely related to Belarusian and Ukrainian. It has more than 150 million speakers within the Russian Federation and is used as a second language in the former republics of the USSR, with a total number of speakers of more than 270 million people.
Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet (see the next page), and it’s well worth the e ort familiarising yourself with it so that you can read maps, timetables, menus and street signs. Otherwise, just read the coloured pro-nunciation guides given next to each Russian phrase in this chapter as if they were English, and you’ll be understood. Most sounds are the same as in English, and the few diences in pronunciation are explained in the
phabet table. The stressed syllables are ated with italics.
S
kak vas za·vut
mi·nya za·vut ...
vi ga·va·ri·tye pa·an·gli·ski
ya nye pa·ni·ma·yu
ACCOMMODATION ...? gdye ...
pan
hostel
Language
PAGE
56
PAGE
377
THIS EDITION WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY
Anthony HaywoodMarc Bennetts, Greg Bloom, Marc Di Duca, Michael Kohn, Tom Masters,
Leonid Ragozin, Mara Vorhees
©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
PLAN YOUR TRIP
Welcome to the Trans-Siberian Railway .. 216 Top Experiences ........ 6Need to Know ................. 14What’s New ..................... 16If You Like ........................ 17Month by Month ............. 20Choosing Your Route ..... 22Itineraries ........................ 28Booking Tickets .............. 32Arranging Your Visas ..... 42Life on the Rails .............. 46Routes at a Glance ......... 53
YOUR PLANNING TOOL KIT
Photos, itineraries, lists and suggestions
to help you put together your perfect trip
UNDERSTAND YOUR JOURNEY
History of the Railway .... 326Siberian Travellers ......... 342Russia Today ................... 346Russia .............................. 349Mongolia Today .............. 356Mongolia .......................... 358China Today .................... 364China ............................... 366Landscapes & Wildlife ... 372
ON
AR
IES
1860of Peking
na cede all east of the s far south an border ssia loses the newly
nded port.
1876 China’s rst railroad,
the Woosung Railway, connects Shàngh i with Woosung (now
Baoshan District). However, the private project, constructed without government
approval, is demolished the following year.
1886–89 Following Tsar Alex-ander III’s approval
of the idea of a Trans-Siberian Railway,
topographical surveys are taken along part
of the proposed route between Tomsk and
Sretensk, and around Vladivostok.
wn in the n rth. The line wa later altered to accommodatential economic lobbies by including Perm, Yekaterinburg and
the railroad across a formidable landscape posed ongoingof engineering, supply and labour. The railroad cut throughs crossed countless rivers, scaled rocky mountains and tra-y uagmires. Work brigades were poorly out tted. The heavy arried out using shovels and picks, while horses and humanslingwere recruited, or conscripted, from all over the empire as
m abroad. Some of these were imprisoned exiles being held iners labour recruits from China or Italian stonemasons, who
Railway was built, it was quicker to travel from St Petersburg to Vladivostok
by crossing the Atlantic, North
America and the Pacific than by going overland.
CR
ED
IT
» Tsar Alexander III
otherwise – that the Russian authorities use to intimidate bloggers andthose who dare to speak their mind. Suspicious deaths include that of Anna Politkovskaya, the human-rights activist and writer gunned downon her doorstep in 2006.
Russia for Russians! A major issue in Russia is the rise in extreme nationalism, ungentl illustrated in 2010 when 5000 soccer sup orters ram aged through cen
belief systems(% of population)
Catholicism
1
Other
18
Islam
5
Buddhism
1
Orthodox Christianity
75
80 would be Russian4 would be Tatar2 would be Ukrainian
1 would be Bashkir1 would be Chuvash12 would be other
if Russia were100 people
Mongolian Landscapes 5 Mongolia is a beauti-
ful country. Get into a Russian 4WD or van and your Mongolian travel mates will be crooning about the blue waters of Lake Khövsgöl, the Singing Sand Dunes of the Gobi Desert and the glaciated peaks of the Altai Mountains. Closer to Ulaanbaatar, it’s easy to make day or over-night trips to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park (p 285 ) amidst the glorious rock formations and green valleys. For a won-derful experience that com-bines natural landscapes and wildlife viewing, visit Khustain National Park (p 285 ), where wild takhi horses roam across the pristine grasslands of
Stations & Stopovers 6 The glue between the
interior world of the train and the towns and cities along the track is the myriad stations, some little more than a ramshackle platform with a telltale name such as ‘73km’ to signify their exist-ence, others ambitious piec-es of architecture be tting one of the world’s greatest railway achievements. And all along the route at Russia’s stations, sellers ply a busy trade for travellers – smoked sh, berries, nuts, sausages,
anything that will still a traveller’s hunger or make a journey more comfortable.
Watching the World Unfurl 7 The swaying of the train
as it crosses a subcon-tinent, the landscapes that unfurl outside the window: steppe, taiga, farmed clear-ings, fallow land and swamps, and all those Siberian settle-ments of just a few wooden peasant houses fenced o and staking a dwindling claim to existence in the burlesque proportions of Siberia’s land-scape. Part of the pleasure of the Trans-Siberian are the rituals of feeding time and sleeping, and simply gazing through the glass as time and motion gradually ll the space.
CR
ED
IT
65
7
“All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!”TONY WHEELER, COFOUNDER – LONELY PLANET
PAGE
2
PAGE
325GET MORE FROM YOUR TRIP
Learn about the big picture, so you
can make sense of what you see
Need to Know Currency
» Yuan (Y; China), tögrög (T; Mongolia), rouble (R; Russia)
Language » Mandarin, Cantonese
(China); Mongolian, Kazakh (Mongolia); Russian (Russia)
High Season (May–Sep)
» China: accom- modation prices peak first week May holiday period
» Mongolia: peak June–August; rain late July–August; book everything early around Naadam
» Russia: peak June–early September
Shoulder (May & Oct)
» China: shoulder February–April and September–October
» Mongolia: May and September some ger camps closed, fewer tourists, weather changeable
» Russia: beautiful but can get chilly
Low Season (Oct–Apr)
» China: bitterly cold in the north; domestic tourism ebbs (except around Chinese New Year)
» Mongolia: some ger camps and smaller guesthouses closed
» Russia: plan indoor pursuits or winter sports; take saunas
When to Go
#
#
##
#
Desert, dry climateWarm to hot summersMild summers, cold wintersMild summers, very cold wintersCold climate
B›ij¸ngGO Sep–early Nov
VladivostokGO Jun
UlaanbataarGO Aug–Sep
IrkutskGO Jun
MoscowGO May–Jun
Your Daily Budget Budget less than
US$50 » Dorm beds and meals
in simple restaurants or cafe and street stalls
Midrange
US$50–210
» Eating in decent restaurants and staying in hotels with private facilities; in Mongolia expect a maximum midrange of US$120, in China US$160 and in Russia US$210
High End over
US$210 » Russia is the most
expensive (US$210); in Mongolia you find high-end places (starting at US$120) in only a few areas; in China dining and higher comforts begin at US$160
14
PLAN YO
UR TRIP ITIN
ERA
RIES
#
#
•
•
RUSSIA
CHINA
MONGOLIA
KAZAKHSTAN
#•#•
#•#• #•
#•
#•
#
#•
#_
#•
#•
•
#•
#•
BAM
Krasnoyarsk
IrkutskNovosibirsk
Tyumen
Tobolsk
Yekaterinburg
Kazan
MOSCOW
Tayshet
Bratsk
TyndaKomsomolsk-
na-AmureSeveromuysk
SeverobaikalskÉÉ
É
É
É
É
15 DaysBAM
The 3400km Baikal-Amur Mainline (Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral, or BAM) travels through some of the most rugged and unforgiving
Siberian landscapes. The line o cially starts in the drab town of Tayshet, but the closest big city, Krasnoyarsk, has an airport if you wish to skip all points further west.
At Bratsk the train crosses a 1km-long dam. The town also has an excellent open-air ethnographic museum where you can see many of the traditional Siberian build-ings rescued when the dam was built. Sev-erobaikalsk, on the northern tip of Lake Baikal, is the best base for exploring this relatively unvisited end of the lake and it
Three WeeksVolga & Lake Baikal
From Moscow enjoy an overnight trip to Kazan, perhaps taking the premium train with showers and double beds. Spend two to three days
exploring the capital of Tatarstan with its splendid kremlin and museums; allow at least a full day for the city and another day for an excursion on the Volga. From Kazan continue to Yekaterinburg in the Urals and spend ve days visiting the Romanov sites and Urals attractions. Siberia begins after that, with a night in Tyumen and side trip north to Tobolsk, which can be completed comfortably in three to four days. The journey continues with two days in Novosibirsk, the uno cial capital f ib i d i ’ hi d l i
I SBN 978 -1 -74179 -565 -3
9 781741 795653
99125
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On the Road
See the Index for a full list of destinations covered in this book.
MOSCOW . . . . . . . . . . .58
ST PETERSBURG . . . .93
MOSCOW TO YEKATERINBURG . . . 119Vladimir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Bogolyubovo . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Suzdal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Nizhny Novgorod . . . . . . . . 131Perm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Around Perm . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Kungur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
YEKATERINBURG TO KRASNOYARSK . . . .144Yekaterinburg . . . . . . . . . . . 148Around Yekaterinburg . . . . 155Tyumen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Tobolsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160Omsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Novosibirsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Tomsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
LAKE BAIKAL: KRASNOYARSK TO ULAN-UDE . . . . . . . . . 176Krasnoyarsk . . . . . . . . . . . .180Around Krasnoyarsk . . . . . 186Irkutsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Around Irkutsk . . . . . . . . . . 197Western Lake Baikal . . . . . 197Listvyanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Port Baikal . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201Bolshie Koty . . . . . . . . . . . 202Olkhon Island . . . . . . . . . 202
South Baikal & the Tunka Valley . . . . . . . . . . . 204Ulan-Ude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Around Ulan-Ude . . . . . . . . 213Eastern Baikal . . . . . . . . . . . 213
ULAN-UDE TO VLADIVOSTOK . . . . . 216Chita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223Around Chita . . . . . . . . . . . .227Nerchinsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227Blagoveshchensk . . . . . . .228Birobidzhan . . . . . . . . . . . . .229Khabarovsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231Vladivostok . . . . . . . . . . . . .238Around Vladivostok . . . . . .249
THE BAIKAL-AMUR MAINLINE (BAM) . . 250Bratsk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254Severobaikalsk . . . . . . . . . .255Around Severobaikalsk . . .258Tynda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259Komsomolsk-na-Amure . . 261Around Komsomolsk-na-Amure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
THE TRANS-MONGOLIAN ROUTE . . . . . . . . . . . .265Kyakhta, Russia . . . . . . . . .269Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia . . .270Around Ulaanbaatar . . . . 284Èrlián (Erenhot), China . . 286Dàtóng, China . . . . . . . . . . 286
THE TRANS-MANCHURIAN ROUTE . . . . . . . . . . . 290Mănzhōulǐ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294Hā’ěrbīn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295Chángchūn . . . . . . . . . . . . 300Shānhǎiguān . . . . . . . . . . . 300
BĚIJĪNG . . . . . . . . . . .301AROUND BĚIJĪNG . . . . . . . 321Great Wall of China . . . . . . 321
A R C T I CO C E A N
Gul
fOb
A R C T I C
Kaliningrad
AltaiskGorno-
UstyugVeliky
(Kirov)Vyatka
Vyborg
Sochi on-DonRostov-
Yeniseysk
Barnaul Novokuznetsk
Surgut
Orenburg
CheboksaryKursk
Bryansk
TverVologda
PskovNovgorod
Petrozavodsk
Tyumen
Kurgan
Nizhnevartovsk
Kemerovo
Syktyvkar
Ufa
IzhevskUlyanovskVoronezh
Tambov
Ryazan
TulaOryol
Suzdal
Astana
Aktogay
Vorkuta
Igarka
NorilskDudinka
Semey
Petropavl Mariinsk
Tobolsk
(Petropavlovsk)
Vladimir
Vilnius
Dikson
Tomsk
Novosibirsk
(Semipalatinsk)
Urumqi
Murmansk
Arkhangelsk
Nizhny TagilKazanPerm
Amderma
Helsinki
Stockholm
Tallinn
Oslo
MoscowKyiv
Minsk
R‹ga
St Petersburg
Nizhny Novgorod
Yaroslavl
Yekaterinburg
Chelyabinsk
Orsk
Magnitogorsk
Samara
Balkhash
Dushanbe
Bishkek
Nukus
BukharaTashkent
SaratovVolgograd
Grozny
Astrakhan
Tbilisi
Baku
Tehran
Yerevan
Tashauz
Ashkabad
Kabul
Syzran
Almaty
Karaganda
Omsk
Salekhard
Khanty-Mansiysk
MountainsAltai
Ura
l Mou
ntai
ns
(4506m)Belukha
(5642m)Mt Elbrus
CaucasusM
ountains
Zagros Mountains
40°N
A R C T I C
80°E60°E
40°E
20°E70°N
60°N
BalkhashLake
LakeLadoga
Sea ofAzov
AralSea
Svalbard
Land
Novaya Zemlya
Franz Josef
PeninsulaKola
PeninsulaGydansky
PeninsulaYamal
TuranianPlateu
Tarim Basin
SiberianLowland
SeaBaltic
Amu D
arya
K A R A S E A
Yeni
sey
Irty
sh
Ob
N O R T HS E A
B A R E N T S S E A
Pech
ora
I
Dnieper
Volga
Volga
BlackSea
SeaCaspian
SeaNorwegian
ObSevernaya Dvina
Kama
Volga
Ishi
m
Ural
Syr Darya
Irtysh
FINLAND
NORWAY
R U S S I A
ESTONIA
LITHUANIA
LATVIA
SWEDEN
KAZAKHSTANAZERBAIJAN
TURKMENISTAN
CHINA
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
BELARUS
UZBEKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN
ARMENIA
GEORGIA
I R A N
PAKISTANAFGHANISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN
0 1000 km0 600 miles
MoscowCulture and the ancient
Kremlin (p58)
St PetersburgGrand masters on
the Neva (p93)
Lake BaikalRussia’s sacred
sea (p176)
TobolskMagnificent kremlin and
atmospheric lower town (p160)
UlaanbaatarTraditional Mongolian culture
meets the modern (p270)
› Trans-Siberian Railway
O C E A N
Tatar Strait
Sea ofJapan
YellowSea
East China
ai
rbiS e
Slyudyanka
Hƒ’›rb¸n(Harbin)
Severomuysk UgalNovy
Nakhodka
Zamyn-Üüd Èrlián
Kyakhta
Nerchinsk H‰ihé Fuyuan
SuifenheM†nzhŸul¨
Zabaikalsk
SükhbaatarNaushki
Neryungri
Sakhalinsk
KyzylAbakan
Okhotsk
Khatanga
Tiksi
Blagoveshchensk
Shƒnh†iguƒn
Tiƒnj¸n
Zhangjiakou
Sainshand
Dàtóng
Vanino
GavanSovetskayaKomsomolsk-
na-Amure
Birobidzhan
Ussuriysk
Tynda
Chita
Darkhan
SeverobaikalskTayshet
Magadan
Yakutsk
LenskOlekminsk
Nordvik
Khabarovsk
VladivostokChángch¥n
SeoulPyongyang
Yuzhno-
Ulan-UdeIrkutsk
Hohhot
B›ij¸ngBaotou
Ulaanbaatar
Bratsk
Krasnoyarsk
Yumen Jiayuguan Qingdao
Sh›nyáng
MOUNTAINSUDOKAN
Mountains
Mountains
Yablonovy
Stanovoy
Mountains
Kolym
sky
Sikh
ote
Alin
Mou
ntai
ns
(4668m)Klyuchevskaya
tsnia
oMnu
V
ksn yohkray
e
Mountains
Western
Sayan
C I R C L E
50°N
70°N80
°N
160°E
140°E
100°E120°E
40°N
BaikalLakeIsland
Olkhon
WrangelIsland
IslandSakhalin
NovosibirskieIslandsSevernaya
Zemlya
PeninsulaKamchatka
TaymyrPeninsula
PlateauPutorana
SIBERIANPLATEAU
CENTRAL
Plain
BasinGreat
DesertGobi
Manchurian
E A S T S I B E R I A N
GulfShelekhov
Sea of
S E A
Kolyma
Lena
S E A
L A P T E V
Okhotsk
Amur
Ussuri
Amur
Argu
n
TunguskaNizhnyaya
Indigirka
Yenisey
Huang
He
Lena
R U S S I A
JAPAN
C H I N AM O N G O L I A
NORTHKOREA
SOUTH KOREA
Baikal-Amur Mainline
Trans-SiberianTrans-MongolianTrans-Manchurian
RAIL ROUTES
UralOther
Gorkhi-Terelj National ParkGlorious rock formations and
green valleys (p285)
Olkhon IslandSpellbinding landscapes and
epic myth (p202)
Barguzin ValleyRemote and romantically
timeless valley (p214)
VladivostokRussia’s principal city
of the east (p238)
B›ij¸ngExplore China’s capital
by bike (p301)
Shƒnh†iguƒnThe Great Wall meets
the sea (p300)
Top Experiences ›
OUR STORYA beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their fi rst travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies. Lonely Planet was born. Today, Lonely Planet has offi ces in Melbourne, London
and Oakland, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ‘a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’.
Anthony Haywood Coordinating author; Moscow to Yekaterinburg, Yekaterinburg to Krasnoyarsk Anthony was born in the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, and pulled anchor early on to mostly hitchhike through Europe and the USA. Aberystwyth in Wales and Ealing in London were his wintering grounds at the time. He later studied comparative literature in Perth and Russian language in Melbourne. In the 1990s, fresh from a spell in post-Soviet, pre-anything Moscow, he moved to Germany.
Today he works as a German-based freelance writer and journalist and divides his time between Göttingen (Lower Saxony) and Berlin. His book, Siberia, A Cultural History, was published in 2010.
Marc Bennetts Yekaterinburg to Krasnoyarsk Marc moved to Russia in 1997 and immediately fell in love with the country’s pirate-CD markets. Since then, he has written about Russian spies, Chechen football and Soviet psychics for a variety of national newspapers, including the Guardian and the Times. In 2008 his book Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People’s Game was released. He is currently working on a book about Russia’s fascination with the occult.
Greg Bloom Ulan-Ude to Vladivostok, The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Greg cut his teeth in the former Soviet Union as a journalist and later editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post. He left Ukraine in 2003, but returns frequently to the region. In the service of Lonely Planet he has been detained in Uzbekistan, taken a shlagbaum to the head in Kyiv, swum in the dying Aral Sea, snowboarded down volcanoes in Kamchatka, and hit 100km/h in a Latvian bobsled. These days Greg lives in Cambodia.
Marc Di Duca Lake Baikal: Krasnoyarsk to Ulan-Ude, Ulan-Ude to Vladivostok, The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Marc has spent nigh on two decades crisscrossing the former communist world, the last seven years of them as a travel-guide author. Stints on previous editions of LP’s Russia and Trans-Siberian Railway were preceded by other guides to Moscow, St Petersburg and Lake Baikal. During research on his stretch of the Trans-Sib this time around, Marc somehow found himself freezing
extremities in Lake Baikal, attending Ulan-Ude opera in hiking gear and facing a starter of frozen horse liver.
Read more about Greg at:lonelyplanet.com/members/gbloom4
Read more about Marc at:lonelyplanet.com/members/madidu
OUR WRITERS
Although the authors and Lonely Planet have taken all reason-able care in preparing this book, we make no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of its content and, to the maxi-mum extent permitted, disclaim all liability arising from its use.
Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty LtdABN 36 005 607 9834th edition – Apr 2012ISBN 978 1 74179 565 3© Lonely Planet 2012 Photographs © as indicated 201210 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Printed in SingaporeAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, and no part of this publication may be sold or hired, without the written permission of the publisher. Lonely Planet and the Lonely Planet logo are trademarks of Lonely Planet and are registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Lonely Planet does not allow its name or logo to be appropriated by commercial establishments, such as retailers, restaurants or hotels. Please let us know of any misuses: lonelyplanet.com/ip.
OVERPAGE
MORE WRITERS
Michael Kohn The Trans-Mongolian Route, The Trans-Manchurian Route, Běijīng Michael fi rst rode the Trans-Mongolian Railway in 1997, stepping off the train in Ulaanbaatar on a chilly -30°C December day. That was the start of an extended stay in Mon-golia, where he worked for an English-language newspaper and various interna-tional media. He has since chugged along most of northeast Asia’s rail routes, including the remote train journey from Choibalsan to the Russian border.
Michael has updated three editions of Lonely Planet’s Mongolia guide, and two editions of Lonely Planet’s China. He is currently based in Ulaanbaatar.
Tom Masters St Petersburg Tom fi rst came to St Petersburg in 1996 while studying Russian at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies in London. He loved the city so much that he came back after graduating and worked as a writer and editor at the St Petersburg Times. Since then he’s been based in London and Berlin but returns regularly to ‘Piter’ to take on documentary work and write freelance articles and Lonely Planet guides.
Leonid Ragozin Moscow, Moscow to Yekaterinburg Leonid devoted himself to beach dynamics when he studied geology in Moscow. But, for want of really nice beaches in Russia, he helped gold miners in Siberia and sold InterRail tickets before embarking on a journalist career. After eight years with the BBC he became a foreign correspond-ent for Russian Newsweek – a job that took him to such unlikely destinations as Bhutan and Ecuador. Back at the BBC he plunged into the turbulent sea of TV news.
Mara Vorhees Moscow Mara has been travelling to Moscow since it was the capital of a diff er-ent country. The pen-wielding traveller has worked on dozens of Lonely Planet titles, including Moscow and St Petersburg. When not roaming around Russia, Mara lives in a pink house in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband, two kiddies and two kitties.
Itiner-aries
MOSCOW
ULAANBAATAR
FINLAND
KAZAKHSTANCHINA
RUSSIA#_É
É
É#_
#_BĚIJĪNG
MONGOLIA
Two WeeksThe Trans-Mongolian Route
This highly popular journey between Moscow and Běijīng goes via the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, allowing you to compare and contrast the landscapes of three countries. A nonstop itinerary is best suited to travellers who want to see Mos-cow and Běijīng, enjoy the changes of landscape, and experience life on the train as
it rolls across Asia. It can be covered in either direction, but if you wish to spend time in Moscow at the start of the journey, a transit visa will not suffi ce.
The train journey in itself takes almost six days, which allows several days in Moscow and several in Běijīng to explore two of the world’s most dynamic capitals. In Moscow, spend three days visiting Red Square and the Kremlin, and taking in at least one large gallery. At the other end of the line, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square will each take a day. Between these two very diff erent geographic points, taiga, steppe and desert unfold in a mesmerising landscape panorama, with views of iconic Lake Baikal, the Gobi Desert and the Great Wall of China.
Whether you’ve got six days or Whether you’ve got six days or 60, these itineraries provide a 60, these itineraries provide a starting point for the trip of a starting point for the trip of a lifetime. Want more inspiration? lifetime. Want more inspiration? Head online to lonelyplanetHead online to lonelyplanet.com/thorntree to chat with other .com/thorntree to chat with other travellers.travellers.
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PLAN YO
UR TRIP ITIN
ERA
RIES
#•
Vladimir
St Petersburg
MOSCOW
Ulan-Ude
Yekaterinburg
Irkutsk
Khabarovsk
Vladivostok
#•
#•
#_#•
#•
KrasnoyarskLake
Baikal
OlkhonIsland
#•#•
#•
#•
#•
#•
#_ Suzdal
FINLAND
KAZAKHSTANCHINA
É
É
É
É
#•Ivolginsky
Datsan
#•
#•
#•Nizhny Novgorod
MONGOLIA
RUSSIA
#•
One to Four WeeksThe Trans-Siberian Route
Although this route can be done in either direction, we suggest going against the general fl ow by starting in Vladivostok, at the far eastern end of Russia, so you can fi nish up with a grand party in either Moscow or, better still, St Petersburg. The route takes six days without stopovers on the Rossiya, the premium train 1/2,
which means the absolute minimum required for this itinerary is one week. It is best done, however, with stopovers over three to four weeks, and can easily be tailored to your own schedule.
Vladivostok, situated on a stunning natural harbour, merits several days to enjoy Rus-sia’s Pacifi c seaboard and rest from jetlag if you have fl own in from other time zones. It’s also worth taking a break of a couple of days or more at Khabarovsk, a lively city on the banks of the Amur River that’s an overnight hop from Vladivostok. Save another couple of days for Ulan-Ude, a fascinating city where Russian and Buryat cultures mingle, and from where you can venture into the steppes to visit Russia’s principal Buddhist monas-tery, Ivolginsky Datsan. Just west of Ulan-Ude the railway hugs the southern shores of magnifi cent Lake Baikal. Allow at least fi ve days to see the lake, visit the equally lovely Olkhon Island and spend time in Irkutsk, one of the Trans-Siberian’s most important rail junctions.
Krasnoyarsk, on the Yenisey River, aff ords the opportunity for scenic cruises along one of Siberia’s most pleasant waterways and can easily be visited on a two-day stopover to see the city itself. If you want to visit the Stolby Nature Reserve or take an excursion on the Yenisey River, however, plan on four days to do this comfortably. Crossing the Ural Mountains into European Russia, schedule a stop in Yekaterinburg, a bustling historic city stocked with interesting museums and sites connected to the murder of the last tsar and his family. Finally, you have the choice of pausing in cities such as Nizhny Novgorod, which has some good museums and restaurants, or stopovers in the tranquil Golden Ring towns of Vladimir and/or Suzdal, both packed with onion-domed churches, and a million miles away from the pace of the megacities to come.
29
PLAN YO
UR TRIP ITIN
ERA
RIES
Irkutsk
Chita
Ulan-Ude
ULAANBAATAR
RUSSIA
CHINAMONGOLIA
#•Olkhon Island
#•Hā’ěrbīn
#• Mănzhōulǐ#•Zabaikalsk
#•Lake BaikalAginskoe
PortBaikal
TunkaValley
Listvyanka#• #•#•
#•
Slyudyanka
#•
#_
#_
#•
#•
#• ‚ ‚
É
É
ÉÉ
É
É
É
BĚIJĪNG
Four WeeksThe Běijīng Loop
You will want to schedule plenty of time in historic, dynamic Běijīng either at the start or end of the trip. A day each is needed to see the Forbidden City and Tianan-men Square, the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.
An excellent overnight service connects the capital with Hā’ěrbīn, famous for the ice sculptures of its midwinter Ice & Snow Festival. Russians came here at the end of the 19th century to build the railway, and handsome architectural evidence of their stay lies at the city’s heart close to the Songhua River. Take a couple of days to enjoy Hā’ěrbīn’s cosmo-politan atmosphere and visit the nearby Siberian Tiger Park.
The Chinese–Russian border lies an overnight train ride away at Mănzhōulǐ. If you’re not on one of the weekly Trans-Manchurian services that continue across the border and through to Moscow, it’s a process of hopping on a bus across to Zabaikalsk on the Russian side, where you can reconnect with trains through to Chita. This pleasant city is a great base for exploring a relatively unvisited area of Siberia where you’ll discover a couple of beautiful Buddhist monasteries at Aginskoe. From Ulan-Ude you can immediately branch down towards Mongolia, but since you’ve come this far it would be a great shame not to fi rst venture further west to see Lake Baikal. Apart from Ulan-Ude, possible bases for exploring the lake include Slyudyanka, Irkutsk, Listvyanka and Olkhon Island. This part of the journey is where where travellers spend the most time, and it’s well worth crossing from Listvyanka to Port Baikal to briefl y walk along the lakeshore on the Circumbaikal Railway line. While in Listvyanka, also try to fi t in a short walk on a section of the Great Baikal Trail, or from Irkutsk spend a couple of days in the Tunka Valley.
After that, board one of the trains to Ulaanbaatar, which is certainly worth at least a couple of days. Its highlight is the lively and colourful Gandan Khiid monastery. FromUlaanbaatar, it’s a two-night journey back to Běijīng through the Gobi Desert.
30
PLAN YO
UR TRIP ITIN
ERA
RIES
#
#
•
•
RUSSIA
CHINA
MONGOLIA
KAZAKHSTAN
#•#•
#•#• #•
#•
#•
#
#•
#_
#•
#•
•
#•
#•
Volga & Lake BaikalBAM
Krasnoyarsk
IrkutskNovosibirsk
Tyumen
Tobolsk
Yekaterinburg
Kazan
MOSCOW
Tayshet
Bratsk
TyndaKomsomolsk-
na-AmureSeveromuysk
SeverobaikalskÉÉ
É
É
É
É
15 Days BAM
The 3400km Baikal-Amur Mainline (Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral, or BAM) travels through some of the most rugged and unforgiving Siberian
landscapes. The line offi cially starts in the drab town of Tayshet, but the closest big city,Krasnoyarsk, has an airport if you wish to skip all points further west.
At Bratsk the train crosses a 1km-long dam. The town also has an excellent open-air ethnographic museum where you can see many of the traditional Siberian build-ings that were rescued when the dam was built. Sev erobaikalsk, on the northern tip of Lake Baikal, is the best base for exploring this relatively unvisited end of the lake and it also has a small BAM museum.
En route to Tynda the line climbs over and burrows through mountains, the long-est tunnel being 15.3km at Severomuysk. Home of the BAM construction company’s headquarters, Tynda is a must-stop for its comprehensive BAM museum and good banya (bathhouse). Continue working your way east to the St Petersburg–styled Komsomolsk-na-Amure, the largest city on the line and a great place to ponder the sacrifi ces and achievements made by hardy Soviet pioneers.
Three WeeksVolga & Lake Baikal
From Moscow enjoy an overnight trip to Kazan, perhaps taking the premium train with showers and double beds. Spend two to three days
exploring the capital of Tatarstan with its splendid kremlin and museums; allow at least a full day for the city and another day for an excursion on the Volga. From Kazan continue to Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains and spend fi ve days visiting the Romanov sites and Urals attractions. Siberia begins after that, with a night in Tyumen and side trip north to Tobolsk, which can be completed comfortably in three to four days. The journey continues with two days in Novosibirsk, the unoffi cial capital of Siberia and Russia’s third-largest city, situ-ated on the Ob River. Krasnoyarsk is clos-ing the gap on Novosibirsk for the title of capital, and is well worth a couple of days in order to explore the city and perhaps visit the Stolby Nature Reserve or take a boat trip on the Yenisey River. From Krasnoyarsk the route continues to Irkutsk, where at least fi ve days can be scheduled in for the sights of Lake Baikal.
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