Ending my Trans-Mongolian Trip – Ulan Bator to Beijing, China

By Rory

Posted December 24, 2011

After spending my last bit of time in Ulan Bator, I was headed back on the train to finish my Trans-Mongolian trip. Only this time, I was now traveling
with a couple friends that were taking the same train as me. After the border crossing we had to go through another stop where they raise the train carriage and then switch out the wheels because of the difference in the width of the track between Mongolia and China.

Ending my Trans-Mongolian Trip - Ulan Bator to Beijing, China

Setting the new wheels in place…

The process takes about an hour and is quite interesting to watch. Once this was complete, we were on our way to Hohhot, China. Since I wanted an extra day in Mongolia, the only train you can get on a Monday to Beijing has to connect in
Hohhot. This presented a problem for both me and my friends.

Setting the carriage in place…

Since we were travelling together, their issue was the fact that they would
have less than 50 minutes to get off the train, attempt to buy a
ticket on my train leaving for Beijing speaking no Chinese, get back
through security and out to the platform. But the biggest problem for
them was the fact there are 1.3 billion people in China competing for tickets and typically you need to buy your train tickets at least a couple days in advance,
especially for a sleeper cabin.

Umm… No occupying while stabling? I’m a bit clueless. I thought I spoke the language. We found this on the train door heading Beijing

My problem on the other hand was the fact that I was supposed to meet someone on the platform when I arrived that supposedly held my onward ticket to Beijing that night however since we weren’t arriving until almost ten on a Monday night I doubted anyone would be there to meet me and I had no phone or phone number to contact this person. That was my issue. Well, we arrived about five minutes late to the station so now we had 45 minutes till the train we needed would leave for Beijing. And after getting off the train, I realized the person I was to meet was not there. Things are starting to get interesting. After fighting through a crowd of Chinese to get to the ticket office, we ended up staring at this
screen….

Ahh, can anyone tell me which train we need to Beijing? Or what time it leaves? And from which platform? I’m still a bit rusty with my Chinese characters

We quickly found out that the ticket office won’t accept a credit card (of
course) so my friend ran off to find an ATM. We now had about 40
minutes and I was still thinking this person I was to meet just might
show up at the ticket office area. 10 more minutes had passed and the
person I was to meet finally came rushing up to me.

What hunger can cause you to do on the train…buy something random in a bag…

Apparently the arrival
platform for my train had been changed at the last minute so the person I was to meet was in the wrong area. I now had my ticket but we needed to find one for my friends. The lady that brought me my ticket stood in line with my other friend to do some translating then later came back to tell us there were only two seats left for them. Surprisingly, the lady at the ticket window told us she would hold the two seats if we could come up with the money quickly. My other friend had just come back and told me the few ATMs he tried would not accept his card. This was a common problem in both China and Mongolia as only certain ATMs accept common cards such as Visa and Mastercard. The lady that gave me my ticket told us there were some other ATMs down the street that may work but that we must hurry since they were not close at all. We now had about 25 minutes to get to ATM, pay for the tickets, go through security and find the platform our train was on.

What I ended up with after my adventure purchase… some type of salted bean with a fish tasting flavor. Yum.

The next thing I know, I’m running down the streets of Hohhot, China with my winter coat on with my friend and some Chinese lady, crossing streets back and forth between banks almost a mile away from the train
station and dodging oncoming traffic. After going into the fourth bank we finally found one that worked and we both took money out. Lord knows
when we’d find another one that worked. We now had less than twenty
minutes to make it back and it was at least a five minute run. I told
the Chinese lady that we’d be OK from here. That part was true but my
friend and I would need to make an all out sprint to get back in time
to get everything done so we took off, crossing through construction
sites, dodging traffic and narrowly missing pedestrians on
the sidewalks. I had even hurdled a security crossing bar at the
station (it was impressive). Of course, since we were in our winter coats having come from Mongolia, we were drenched in sweat and fully out
of breath when we made it back into the ticket office. We definitely
got some strange looks.

At the station near the border…

He handed over the money to the agent and luckily returned with two tickets in hand. We now had just over ten minutes. On to security and then to the platform. Somehow we made it onto the train with just a couple minutes to spare… I definitely didn’t want to go through that again….

Unlike on Russian trains where people stay up late and run around
throughout the train car, on here, the Chinese were fast asleep within
an hour of the train departing. With nothing more to do, I joined them
and later woke up that morning as we pulled into the train station in
Beijing. This would mark the end of my Trans-Mongolian journey. Below
are some stats along the way that I collected along this train ride…