Day 10 22nd February 2017
Another early morning push and shove into Beijing station. This time we knew the drill and it all went with minimal angst. The wonderful Eric from ChinaGuide gets us too the station and on the train for the final time.
Once on board we found we had a Kupe (4 bed carriage) to ourselves. Whoopee. Bags and stuff needed for the journey could be spread out – as could we. The early part of the journey shows snowy, mountainous, landscapes with scattered villages showing no apparent access.
At about midnight we reach the border into Mongolia 🇲🇳 – our passports taken by young Chinese guard. This one is a lengthy process taking over an hour and includes a track gauge change. The rail gauges are different between China and Mongolia. Here the whole train is actually elevated so that tracks can be adjusted – no train change required. Watched the men on the tracks crank up the train change the gauge then set the train back down again.
All done. We cross the border and resettle. Another surprise on the way. We had experienced very little English spoken anywhere so it was a surprise to hear a knock on our cabin door as we dozed and the door opened to a tall young woman in turquoise coloured fatigues with a blue coloured fur hat and Mongolian insignia.
“Hi guys” “Where are you from guys?” “Can I see all your bags guys” And as conversation proceeded a series of questions trying to understand why we would travel by train when we could fly.
