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Route p265 Trans-Mongolian The Route p290 Trans-Manchurian The p301 B›ij¸ng Ulan-Ude p176 Krasnoyarsk to Lake Baikal: p250 Mainline (BAM) The Baikal-Amur Krasnoyarsk p144 Yekaterinburg to p93 St Petersburg p58 Moscow p119 Yekaterinburg Vladivostok p216 Ulan-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 .................. 378 Transport ......................... 394 Health ............................... 403 Language & Glossary ..... 407 Index ................................. 430 Map 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 Ֆ ort familiarising yourself with it so that you Ֆ 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 di ences in pronunciation are explained in the phabet table. The stressed syllables are ated with italics. S ɚɜɫɬɜɭɣɬɟ kak vas za· vut mi· nya za ·vut ... vi ga·va· ri pa·an· ·ski ya nye pa·ni· ma ·yu ACCOMMODATION ...? gdye ... ɩɚɧɫɢɨɧɚɬ pan ɤɟɦɩɢɧɝ ɝɨɫɬɢɧɢɰɚ ɨɛɳɟɠɢ hostel Language PAGE 56 PAGE 377 THIS EDITION WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY Anthony Haywood Marc Bennetts, Greg Bloom, Marc Di Duca, Michael Kohn, Tom Masters, Leonid Ragozin, Mara Vorhees ©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
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Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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Page 1: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

Page 2: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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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Page 3: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

Look out for these icons:

o Our author’s top recommendation

Every listing is recommended by our authors, and their favourite places are listed first

S A green or sustainable option F No payment

required

Page 4: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

Page 5: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

Page 6: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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 ›

Page 7: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

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Page 8: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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.

Page 9: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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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Page 10: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

Page 11: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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

Page 12: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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.

31

Page 13: Trans Siberian Railway 4 Contents[1]

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