The classic Trans-Siberian Railway (short Transsib) leads from Moscow by Siberia to Vladivostok. Other well-traveled routes known by the name are the Trans-Manchurian and the Trans-Mongolian, both in Beijing the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) branches into Taischet from the Transsib and leads north on Baikal lake over to PacificDirections in this article are always to be understood as "from west to east". Links often refer to English pages.
background
The trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway is probably one of the last remaining adventures. The large western cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow can already seem strange to many of us. But what comes after is in no comparison. The further east you go, the greater the poverty seems and the cities become more and more puritanical. And the appearance of the people is also slowly changing to the Asian appearance.
One of the highlights is Ulaanbaatar. A capital where people still live in yurts to some extent. And one day later, the architectural high culture of China follows.
But you get to know most people on the train. Especially for individual travelers, the chance is very high that you will be in the compartment with locals. But I don't want to describe the warm nature of these people here, just make this wonderful experience yourself.
history
Already in ancient Rome there was the saying: "The way is life". This word also fits the longest railway in Russia - the Trans-Siberian Railway, which stretches with a length of 9288 km between Moscow and Vladivostok on the Pacific.
Construction began in May 1891 near Vladivostok. The construction work (1891-1901) is a heroic deed of the Russian people: within 10 years, more than 7,000 km of railway systems were built - no other railway has done this at such a pace. And that despite all the ridges, moors and gorges, despite the frosty soil, impenetrable taiga and huge Siberian rivers that had to be overcome. Everything was done with the simplest means: pickaxe and shovel. The skill and perseverance of the Russian engineers and workers brought about the miracle of this railway construction. There were up to 60,000 workers working and driving the route from both sides. Not to be forgotten are the numerous sacrifices that the construction took. The entire line was completed in 1916 and on December 25, 2002 the entire line was electrified, an expansion that took 74 years.
After the completion of the railway, the total distance of which measures 9288.2 km, the Paris newspaper “La France” wrote: “After the discovery of America and the construction of the Suez Canal, history knows no other event that would have such great direct and indirect consequences as the construction the Trans-Siberian Railway ”.
The route of the Trans-Siberian extends from Moscow's Yaroslav Railway Station to Vladivostok. This route spans two continents, 16 major rivers, six federal states and nearly 100 cities. To this day, the bridges over the Amur, Jennisej and Ob rivers are unique - they are the largest on the continent. The route has a total of 485 bridges.
The new artery has changed Russia. The connection to the railroad caused an economic upswing in Siberia and the Far East and massive immigration into these regions. Cities near the railroad grew, became more beautiful and large industrial cities, e.g. Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Habarovsk and Vladivostok.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the main axis of the Russian railway network and the link between the Asian and European railway networks. It is the busiest railway line in the world, as a large part of the oil is transported on it.
preparation
Alone or in a group?
Is one alone en route, this is the absolute guarantee that the journey will be an authentic adventure. In addition, there is the freedom to travel and linger at your own pace. But the entire organization is also a burden on you. Flight and train bookings, finding hotels and then looking for the sights. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to buy a ticket at the ticket counter if you do not speak Russian. At least a little English is spoken at the international ticket counters in Ulaanbaatar and Beijing. And then you should still think about whether you can be alone for days with Russian-speaking people or with one (or more) travel partner. Knowledge of Russian is therefore almost a requirement for solo travelers, otherwise it will be difficult. Even in the dining car, no language other than Russian is spoken.
Tickets and hotels can of course also be booked at your local travel agency. The prices then quickly become exorbitant.
In the group all these problems disappear. You just have to pay and then be in the right place at the right time. A group trip is around 30% more expensive than if you organize yourself. You are then bound to the group's schedule and interactions with locals will probably be limited to здравствуйте (Strasstwutje = polite for hello) to the waiter.
For group tours, please note that you are traveling with a Special train that is only on the road for tourist purposes, but also gives trips in which regular trains are used. The journey with the special train is similar to a cruise, where the individual places are visited by a large number of tourists and accordingly there is little natural contact with the local population. When traveling on regular trains, the group is smaller and can therefore better come into contact with the local population; the tour guide usually has more time to look after the guests.
Offers that have an additional stop in front of Irkutsk are more expensive, but the stop is worth it. You can interrupt the long train journey and usually get to know a place that sees relatively few western tourists.
Visa
The Visa Applying in your home country is an advantage.
As tourists in Mongolia, Germans do not need a visa.
The Mongolian visa can easily be applied for at the relevant consulate (or mission in Switzerland). The Chinese visa can be obtained from the Chinese consulate 50 days prior to entry.
The Russian visa is more difficult. You can only get it by invitation. For a tourist visa, this means a confirmed hotel reservation and a corresponding payment receipt (voucher). There are formal requirements for the reservation as well as for the voucher, which are adhered to very precisely, especially in Switzerland. A printout of the hotel reservation from the Internet is therefore usually insufficient. Most travel agencies are also unfamiliar with these forms. It is therefore advisable to find a specialized travel agency or to purchase the forms separately.
Further information from the Russian consulates.
Online visa support
Air conditioning and equipment
It is advisable to keep the equipment as small as possible and, if possible, not to bring any valuables with you. Instead of one large piece of luggage, it is better to take two small ones with you. Soft luggage such as sports bags are best. In the upper classes there is a compartment under the bed where at least one of the luggage fits and cannot be removed while someone is in bed.
Depending on the season, the luggage must be adjusted. In summer it can get over 40 degrees in Siberia and China. In winter, the temperature in Mongolia is below minus 30 ° C.
In spring and autumn you can get by with a few T-shirts, a sweater and a light jacket. Otherwise, items of clothing can be bought cheaply in the markets.
Comfortable clothing (e.g. tracksuit) and flip-flops are essential on such a long train journey. You should also take enough travel literature with you.
You can leave jewelry at home right away. You should think carefully about whether you want to take your cell phone with you. The same goes for laptops for travel notes. A photo camera is of course a must. With digital cameras you should have enough memory with you. The images can be burned to CD in internet cafés in any major city or uploaded to a server. Alternatively, there are also portable copier stations with a built-in hard disk, which allow the camera's memory to be backed up without a computer.
Money and costs
The costs mainly depend on the desired quality standard. If you travel in second class and stay in mid-range hotels, a simple dinner and the basic cultural program are included at € 100. With first class, luxury hotels and guided excursions, you can simply push the costs up to € 500 per day. For self-catering, third class and youth hostels, the costs can be reduced to € 10 per day.
China and Mongolia are a little cheaper and better developed for tourism than Russia.
There are hardly any discounts. Only the ISIC (or a local student ID) can help you get better prices every now and then. As a pensioner, you rarely get away better.
money Many well-known currencies can be exchanged at banks in every city at good rates. Which one is not worth bringing with you as the exchange rates in the country are much better. Exchange offices at the airport should be avoided (except in China - see below) or only change enough to get into the city. In many exchange offices, too, the most important currencies (including Swiss francs) are changed at a slightly worse rate. US $ can also be used far from the metropolises. The longer the longer, the more the same also applies to the (more popular and safer) euro. There is actually no possibility of changing on the train and if so, then at miserable conditions.
In China, you can only change money at an exchange rate set by the government. Private banks tend to refuse service, especially with Swiss francs, and you have to go to the state bank.
Credit cards can mainly be used in hotels, better restaurants, travel agencies and boutiques. They are especially popular in Moscow and Beijing. You should use Visa at ATMs. It should also be noted that the vast majority of ATMs can withdraw a maximum of RUB 6000-10000.
Travelers Checks can only be redeemed at a few locations. For that you get an acceptable rate.
Tip you give up to 10% in Russia. In Mongolia, the bill is rounded up. Tipping is very unknown in China.
Fares / ticket purchase
From 25.09.18 there will be unlimited special offers in the 1st class two-person compartment from Moscow to Vladivostok for 999.- and from Moscow to Beijing for 916.-. Tickets for this can only be obtained directly from the foreign trade company of Russian Railways, TRANSSIB REISEN GmbH St. Petersburg. If you purchase these tickets in Switzerland, Austria or Germany, the surcharge is on average 600.- per ticket.
Most long-distance trains are now subject to dynamic pricing, as we know from the savings prices offered by Deutsche Bahn or from air travel. It is therefore advisable to buy tickets soon after the advance booking period of 60 days (sometimes 45 days), even if the statement that can be found in some places that trains are sold out in no time is (no longer?) Durable. On popular dates or due to random fluctuations in demand when there is little supply, it can of course be sold out at some point. Not all trains are 1st class, and the train does not run to Ulan Bator every day (and apparently only the weekly train to Beijing, Tuesday evening from Moscow, Saturday morning from Irkutsk, can be booked on the Internet).
The cheapest way to buy tickets is directly from the Russian railways over the internet. For example, a ticket on the upper floor of 2nd class from Moscow to Irkutsk costs around € 175 in the summer of 2017, and a good € 300 on the luxury train "Rossija" (a bed downstairs costs more). The new website is not yet fully available in English (as of May 2017), but you can switch to the old design on the start page. During the payment process, however, it becomes Russian - the graphic image of the credit card and possibly an Internet translator will help if necessary. There are reports that in certain cases foreign credit cards are not accepted. There are no other payment methods than credit cards. To avoid these obstacles, you can get a surcharge of about 5-10 € UFS Online or TUTU Travel to buy.[1] Buying a ticket in a German travel agency is significantly more expensive, sometimes several times as much.
The cheapest way to travel to Beijing is not to take the train across the border, but to take the ferry across the Amur to Heihe (China) in Blagoveshchensk. There you can buy a ticket for the onward journey for around € 92 [2]. You can get from Moscow to Beijing in a couchette car for less than € 300 if you do not have to interrupt your journey.
Every break in the journey makes the journey more expensive, sometimes even drastically. There are no transfer tickets in Russia, which means that you start again at 0 km every time you continue your journey. The first 2,500 km cost about three times the kilometers 6,000 - 8,500 for example. On the other hand, with a journey without a stop, you miss out on worthwhile destinations and you have more trains to choose from for sections of the route. The best way to find out what it means in a specific case is on one of the pages linked above.
language
Although Russia is a huge country and some provinces have their own language, the same Russian is taught in every school. So once you've learned a little Russian, you can use it on the entire route. A major obstacle for most travelers is the Cyrillic alphabet. It takes about five hours to learn and should be considered basic preparation as not all ads are in Latin script.
Mongolian is spoken in Mongolia. The script is also Cyrillic and contains two more characters compared to the Russian alphabet.
The Chinese dialect Mandarin is spoken in the Chinese part of the Trans-Siberian. If you don't speak Chinese, you should have everything written down, otherwise it is very likely that you will not be understood.
English is spoken mainly by young and educated people. With the exception of Saint Petersburg and perhaps Moscow, English is usually very poor and has a heavy accent. Some older Russians speak German. Younger people usually learn French in addition to English, which they usually have a better command of and prefer to speak.
In Mongolia, German is astonishingly widespread as a foreign language and is sometimes more useful than English.
Tourists speak among themselves in their mother tongue or in English. French and Spanish are rare.
getting there
In principle, the Trans-Siberian Railway can be reached with any known means of transport. But the easiest are plane and train.
By plane
Most of the cities on this route are accessible by air, which is arguably the easiest way to get to your starting point and return at the end of the trip.
Moscow, Beijing and Saint Petersburg are served by many intercontinental airlines. Most of the other cities (including Vladivostok) on and off the route are through Aeroflot and S7 connected with Moscow.
By train
Saint Petersburg is connected to Helsinki by three direct trains a day. Moscow has direct trains to Berlin, Vienna and in many cities in Eastern Europe. It should be noted here that a transit visa for Belarus is required. Cities beyond Moscow can no longer be reached from Central Europe without changing trains (apart from special coaches for tour groups), only from Brest there is a direct train to Novosibirsk.[3]The transit visa for Belarus can be bypassed by going from Vienna via Kiev or Budapest moves.
From Beijing you can get to almost any point in China. So combining the adventure of the Trans-Siberian Railway with a trip to China is no problem.
Reservations from Western Europe
Contrary to popular claims, all trains, including those in an east-west direction, can be booked from Western Europe. Since the whole thing is unfortunately not that everyday, many railway employees do not know about the special features and often give up prematurely. In order to save a lot of running around and disappointments, it is advisable to contact a competent railway agency. Tickets and reservations can be sent by post.
By bus
Even if bus travel is not as popular in German-speaking countries as train travel, this method should still be mentioned here. From Helsinki there are several connections to Saint Petersburg. There are bus connections to Moscow from Berlin and Vienna.
In China you usually have the free choice between train and bus.
By boat
Saint Petersburg is actually only served by cruise ships. The same goes for Kazan, which has a river cruise on the Volga can be reached from the Caspian Sea.
Regular ferry connections exist between Vladivostok and Japan.
Car
Reaching the Trans-Siberian Railway with your own vehicle does not necessarily make sense, as you cannot take the car with you on the train. It looks a little different with a motorcycle, as you can take it with you in the luggage trolley. For a small tip (e.g. 100 to 200 rubles) you can lovingly take care of the vehicle. If you want to get on later, the drive to Novosibirsk and Ulan-Ude is no problem, after that it gets a bit more rustic. It is possible to get through to Vladivostok, sometimes you have to use the mud paths of the construction vehicles and swallow a lot of mud and dust. In 2006, two Italians who drove a Fiat 500 from Bari to Vladivostok proved that simple vehicles can also be used. As a traveler you have to have a little time and patience for such an undertaking, as you occasionally have to deal with authorities and they do not always use the same concept of time as Western Europeans.
Here we go
Main line
Getting out of the car is not always worthwhile. The following cities are most attractive (excluding border and branch cities).
Main line:
- Moscow (0 km, Moscow time) (Yaroslavl train station)
- Nizhny Novgorod (442 km, Moscow time) on the Volga
- Perm (1436 km, Moscow time plus 2 hours) on the Kama
- Border between Europe and Asia (1777 km), marked by a white obelisk
- Ekaterinburg (1816 km, Moscow time plus 2 hours) in the Urals
- Tyumen (2138, Moscow time plus 2 hours) the first Russian fort in Siberia
- Chelyabinsk an industrial city
- Petropavl in Kazakhstan which is crossed in transit
- Omsk (2712 km, Moscow time plus 3 hours) on the Irtysh
- Novosibirsk (3335 km, Moscow time plus 3 hours) on the Ob
- taiga (3565 km, Moscow time plus 4 hours) junction to Tomsk
- Krasnoyarsk (4098 km, Moscow time plus 4 hours) on the Yenisei
- Branch of the BAM at Taischet (4515 km)
- Irkutsk (5185 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) south of the Baikal lake
- Ulan-Ude (5642 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours)
- Junction of the Trans-Mongolian Line at Zaudinsky (5655 km)
- Chita (6199 km, Moscow time plus 6 hours)
- Junction of the Trans-Manchurian Line at Tarskaya (6312 km)
- Khabarovsk (8521 km, Moscow time plus 7 hours) on the Amur
- Vladivostok (9288 km, Moscow time plus 7 hours), on the Pacific
Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM):
- Taischet(0 km, Moscow time plus 4 hours) Turn off the main line
- Bratsk (326 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) The dam is the real highlight here
- Severobaikalsk (1064 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) At the northern end of Lake Baikal
- Tynda (2364 km, Moscow time plus 6 hours) the BAM city
- Komsomolsk-na-Amure (3837 km, Moscow time plus 7 hours) last city of interest, connection to the main line
- Vaino (4283 km, Moscow time plus 7 hours) ferry to Kholmsk
- Sovietskaya Gavan (4309 km, Moscow time plus 7 hours) BAM's dreary end point
The Trans-Mongolian Line:
- Nauschki (5902 km / 0 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Russian border town
- Sukhbaatar (21 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Mongolian border town
- Ulaanbaatar (404 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Capital of Mongolia
- Zamyn-Üüd (1113 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Mongolian border town
- Erlian (842 km to Beijing, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Chinese border town
- Jining (498 km to Beijing, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Important railway junction
- Datong (371 km to Beijing, Moscow time plus 5 hours) For ancient monasteries
- Beijing (0 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Capital of China
The Trans-Manchurian Line:
- Zabaikalsk (6666 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Russian border town
- Manzhouli (= Manjur; 935 km to Harbin, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Chinese border town
- Harbin (1388 km to Beijing, Moscow time plus 5 hours) A Chinese city of millions with Russian influence
- Shanhaiguan (415 km to Beijing, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Here the great wall meets the sea
- Beijing (0 km, Moscow time plus 5 hours) Capital of China
Detour
Some of the most interesting destinations are a little off the main line. St. Petersburg must of course not be missing here. Kazan (820 km, Moscow time), the capital of Tatars is on the alternative route in Ural between Moscow and Yekaterinburg. Tobolsk (212 km from Tyumen, Moscow time plus 2 hours) is located near Tyumen and is the old Siberian capital. Tomsk (79 km from Taiga, Moscow time plus 4 hours), Siberia's most beautiful city, can be reached from Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk if you turn off at Taiga.
This is a must for every traveler in the Trans-Siberian Baikal lake. The starting points for this are Irkutsk and Severobaikalsk.
In Mongolia you should definitely visit the area around Ulaanbaatar. For example the national park Terelj or (far) in the south the desert Gobi.
The Great Wall is one of the main attractions in China.
Trains and classes
Correct, Trains! There is a lot of activity on the Transsib. The entire line is double-tracked and trains cross between Moscow and Irkutsk every 10 minutes. Be it long-distance traffic, local trains or freight transport.
Tourist trains
For us tourists, the long-distance trains are particularly important. There are the categories Firmennye (Фирменный), Skory (Скорый) and Passaschirskiie (Пассажирский). The company trains are considered high-comfort trains and are about as fast as the Skory (Express). The Passaschirskije, which is roughly called a passenger train, are somewhat slower, but of acceptable quality.
There are sometimes two rules when choosing, but there are a number of exceptions:
- The higher the course number, the worse the (service on) the train. The train category is in the timetable.
- The further the distance that you want to cover in one go, the smaller the selection of trains (courses).
- From Novosibirsk, please be particularly careful, there is very little traffic to the east.
The direct trains Moscow-Ulaanbataar-Beijing and Moscow-Harbin-Beijing (and back) run once a week. There are over 20 daily between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
On the long-distance trains, each wagon is looked after by one or two mostly female train attendants (проводник provodnik / проводница provodnitsa). She is responsible for the cleanliness of the two toilets, empties the rubbish, boils water and, oh yes, checks tickets.
Classes
There are four classes in total on the Russian railway network.
- In the first class (СВ / SV-Spalny Vagon) a carriage consists of nine compartments, each with two beds. The compartments can be locked from the inside. You can open the door from the outside with a square key. If the chain is hung up, the door cannot be pushed open further than 5 cm.
- The second class (Купе / Kupje) has exactly the same structure, except that there are four beds (two above, two below) per compartment.
- The third class (Плацкарте / Plazkartje) is an open-plan compartment with 54 beds.
- The fourth class (Obschchy) can only be found in suburban trains (Prigorodny Poezd or Elektritschka). The seating here is roughly the same as that used on the S-Bahn.
Timetables
- Timetables for the Transsib [4] is available in German at Transsib Reisen in St. Petersburg, even without buying a ticket.
- Timetables for China is available in English at Treehouse. The official website of the Chinese State Railways is only in Chinese.
- The Mongolian side has been under construction for many years and is unusable.
Accommodation and catering
eat
You get to know many kitchens on such a long journey. For the local cuisine, just have a look at the individual cities and regions. Here are just a few general, train-related things.
There are supermarkets (not necessarily Western-style), cheap food stalls and simple restaurants in every place along the route. More expensive restaurants can be found especially in the big cities. There are also fast food chains there. The American chains can only be found in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Beijing.
Most trains are equipped with a dining car. Without the appropriate language skills, ordering can become an experience. The quality depends very much on the respective dining car. Please note that on some trains, food in the dining car is included in the ticket.
An alternative to the dining car are the babushkas (in German: grandmothers), who sell their goods on the platform at every station. The prices are reasonable whether you have cooked chicken legs and Omul If you want to try, everyone has to decide for themselves. Unfortunately, this hardly exists anymore because the sellers at the train stations now have to buy licenses.
Another alternative are ready-made meals that can be brewed with hot water. There is a wide selection of them in many supermarkets and kiosks near the train stations. Every car is responsible for the hot water Samovar freely available, which is constantly filled and heated by the train attendant.
The food is traditionally spread out on the table in the compartment and then shared. This creates a very cozy picnic and you get to know your driver in a very comfortable way. But you should make sure that you are invited (a matter of form) and that you add something yourself. Specialties from home are very welcome.
Drink
Alcohol is very much anchored in the population, especially in Russia. So, of course, the ominous picnic also belongs to the cozy picnic after five minutes at the latest vodka. At this point, you should be absolutely certain when to stop. A drinking competition will definitely end in a Russian hospital or morgue. You should generally keep your hands off bottles without a customs seal.
In addition, Russia and China in particular have a very intensive tea culture. In Russia this is black tea with lemon, in China it is green tea. It is mainly drunk during breaks, after meals and also as an aperitif on certain occasions.
Sleep
On long-distance trains you always have a bed, no matter what class you are traveling in. The loungers are 1.90 meters long and about half a meter wide. You may have to rent bed linen on less comfortable trains or classes. The train attendant then collects around 40-60 rubles (approx. € 1.50 / CHF 2-3).
If you have to get off before eight a.m. local time, the train attendant will wake you up half an hour before your arrival. Otherwise, a quarter of an hour in advance, you will be advised of the achievement of the destination. In the third grade, the light is switched on half an hour before arrival.
Regulations and Security
security
An instruction manual for the Trans-Siberian Railway from Russia from 2014 is included here In addition to warnings, what not to do under any circumstances:
It is safest to be on the train itself. Probably the worst thing that can happen to you here is that you get robbed. But I do not know of any travelers who were robbed on the train.
Otherwise you can say that the further east you go, the more unsafe the cities are. If you are traveling alone, you should avoid lonely areas, in crowds there is only the risk of being stolen. It should also be noted that some trains arrive at their destination in the middle of the night. Here it is advisable to choose a train that arrives at brighter times.
As a tourist, you are very likely to be ripped off at markets. Some negotiation skills are required here and knowledge of Russian will help. Negotiations should always be conducted in rubles, even if the trader starts with dollars and you want to pay in dollars at the end. Changes are made at the current average bank rate.
Dealers and taxi drivers often hold you by the sleeve because they want to lead you to their stand or car. Here it is enough to simply tear yourself away. People may want to deceive you with prices that are too high, but they certainly don't want to harm you physically.
In some hotels prostitution is practiced in the corridors. It is best to stay away from these women and especially from their pimps. Otherwise money and health can be gone very quickly.
Probably the most unsafe city at night is Ulaanbaatar. Hotels and youth hostels close here very often between midnight and 6 a.m., as it is too dangerous on the street.
health
The journey should be started in good health and this condition should not change until the end of the journey. Good medical care according to Western standards can only be found in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In Peking sind die Zustände in Privatkliniken annähernd so gut. In der Mongolei ist man in der Provinz mit dem eigenen Erste-Hilfe-Kasten wohl am besten versorgt. Für kleinere Verletzungen reichen die Privatkliniken in Ulaanbaatar noch aus, bei schwereren Leiden sollte man keine Kosten scheuen, um möglichst schnell Peking, die USA oder Westeuropa zu erreichen.
Vor allem sollte man sich um die Grippe sorgen machen. Wegen der Gefahr, Tollwut zu bekommen, sollte man Abstand zu wilden Tieren halten.
Aktuelle medizinische Hinweise für die entsprechenden Länder geben das Foreign Office and Safetravel.
respect
Die meisten Russen werden einem abweisend und introvertiert vorkommen. Kommt man aber mit ihnen ins Gespräch, erzählen sie einem ihre ganze Lebensgeschichte. Alkohol und ein paar Worte Russisch sind sehr hilfreich, um das Eis zu brechen.
Das nomadische Leben der Mongolen hat sie zu guten Gastgebern gemacht. Fremde sind gerne gesehen und willkommene Gäste. Eine persönliche Bindung zu ihnen aufzubauen ist jedoch ein Kunststück.
Both Chinesen ist die Familie der Mittelpunkt. Begegnungen sind meist von tiefer Erfurcht und gegenseitigem Respekt geprägt. Außerdem sind die Leute meist sehr hilfsbereit.
Fotografieren darf man trotz der touristischen Öffnung der Länder nicht. Vor allem Militärisches und Verwaltungsgebäude sollte man keinesfalls abbilden, wenn man nicht im schlimmsten Fall im Gefängnis enden will. Aber auch andere staatliche Gebäude wie beispielsweise Bahnhöfe sollte man nicht all zu offen ablichten. Museen weisen normalerweise auf ihre Regeln hin.
trips
Ist man nach sieben Tagen Zugsreise in Wladiwostok angekommen, hat man das Gefühl, man sei am Ende der Welt. Doch bekanntlich ist die Erde ja keine Scheibe. Somit hat man hier die Möglichkeit, eine Fähre zu besteigen und nach Japan weiter zu fahren. Nach Osten hin gibt es Züge nach Harbin in China mit Verbindungen nach Peking. Eine Fortsetzung der Reise nach North Korea wird sich schwierig gestalten.
Ist die Reise in Peking zu Ende, ist dies ein wunderbarer Startpunkt für eine Chinareise.
Ab Moskau kann man sich gerne noch den Goldenen Ring ansehen oder noch einen Abstecher nach Sankt Petersburg, dem Tor zu Scandinavia, machen. Auch gehen Direktzüge nach halb Europe.
Will man einfach nur nach Hause, kann man dieselben Methoden wie bei der getting there nutzen.
literature
- : Transsib-Handbuch: Unterwegs mit der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn. Trescher Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89794-258-5 . Mit diesem Buch entgeht einem nichts entlang der Strecke. Man weiß, wo die Uhr umgestellt werden muss. Man weiß, wieso an der russisch-mongolischen Grenze plötzlich der eigene Wagen abgehängt wird, während man auf dem Bahnsteig steht. Viele Details in und um den Zug.
