Answer to One China Travel Question
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Q: I would like to purchase a Trans-Siberian ticket but I'm in Guangzhou. From what CITS here in GZ says, I can only purchase it in Beijing. Do you know any ways to buy one down here?
| | A: In China train tickets are generally purchased in the departure city. Some tickets can be purchased in a city other than the departure point, but this is a relatively new practice and the policy seems to apply only to connecting trains and return trips. Theoretically tour services can purchase tickets for their clients through their banch offices located in various cities. But, for one thing, many travel agencies do not have such branch offices, and, for another, if your train-ride is not part of their tour package, there is very little profit for them in the effort.
Many hotels book train rides for their guests. If you're going to stay in a hotel in Beijing, you may ask the hotel to purchase the needed train ticket for you. There will be a fee, but not much, normally 20 or 30 yuan or about that much. If you have friends or colleagues in Beijing, you of course can ask them to do you a favor. At Beijing Railway Station there is a place where foreigners can purchase their tickets inside so that they don't have to compete with the large crowds outside.
There are two trains going from Beijing to Moscow (numbers 3 and 19), each departing Beijing once a week. The whole ride lasts about 6 days. The two trains go different routes, one running through Manchuria and then crossing Chinese-Russian border while the other traveling through Mongolia. One may need a kind of a transit visa for the latter route (for Chineese citizens anyway), which is said to be easy to obtain with a train ticket.
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