China Travel Forum

[rondah]

Sorry to hit this topic again but I'm trying to get a mongolia train ticket from beijing. I can speak chinese, but can't get any guidance on how to do this.
1) How far in advance do they sell the tickets?
2) How far in advance do I NEED to buy the ticket?
3) Is it even possible to get a ticket through the train station (Beijing Zhan I would assume) or must I go through an agent (and get raped on the price?)
4) When does the train leave? Wednesday?
Thank you. If anyone knows a good agent in chinese or english a phone number would be greatly appreciated!

[kamal]

1. The tickets are sold at the train station 45 days in advance.
2. It depends upon the time of year that you are traveling. On occasion people have reported being able to get tickets the day before departure but generally even three weeks before departure people have trouble and this summer I had a report of someone who tried to get tickets over two months before and was told they were sold out.
3. You can buy the ticket yourself but you risk not getting a berth if you don't buy it far enough in advance.
4. Train departs weekly all year round on Tuesdays and during the summer on Mondays. The wednesday train does on to Moscow and generally speaking does not accept passengers to UB.
Try contacting Richard Tian, whose email is richards@public3.bta.net.cn. Reportedly he is quite reliable about obtaining the tickets at a fair price and delivering them during the day to your hostel or hotel in Beijing. Be sure to add him to your address book so that your spam filter does not "Eat" his response.

[Bird]

I have a travel agent in Beijing, she arranged my train ticket from Beijing to Mongolia 2 months in advance as I went during the high season. She speaks and writes english (we e-mailed) and was great. She works in one of the CITS offices, if you want her details pls PM me.