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teacherk6

Hello all,

Myself and a friend wish to travel from Vladivistok to Beijing. We hope to do this around the 17,18,19 or 20th of March this year.

What are our options?? we wish to go by land (bus or train) to keep costs down, however im having a hard time finding this sort of information online.

If anybody replies can you please include a link and perhaps costs involved? If anybody has done this trip i would love to hear about your experiences!

Cheers!!

Jason

Ekaterina · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:35 am Post subject:

Hi Jason,
I have found only oe trai from Vladivostok to Harbin on 20 Mar but there are no available tickets on it. You should find out about the buses to Harbin when you are in Vladivostok. There are some private companies which provide charter bus trips. You may try this company http://www.asia-business.ru/prom/?p=16
From Harbin there is a railway to Beijing. Trains in China are cheaper than buses. It will be adventurous trip, not easy to manage in China. Buy the time-table of their trains and try to understand the names of Chinese cities.

pauljaymes · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:57 am Post subject:

Hi, I am investigating this option also as I would like to travel via Vladivostok rather than on the Trans-Manchurian. I am intending to travel in the opposite direction (ie from Beijing to Vladivostok and on to Moscow).

The Lonely Planet TSR book mentions a weekly or twice weekly train from Harbin to Vladivostok but I agree that there's little mention of it elsewhere. If you find anything more about that could you please post it here?

A viable alternative option might be to take a return trip to Vladivostok from Ulan-Ude before or after the Trans-Manchurian, but this does seem like a lengthy detour.

mflucas · Just Starting Joined: 28 Mar 2006 Posts: 1

Hi

I think the best way to travel Beijing - Vladivostok is as follows:

Depart Beijing: 20:30 Train Z15 Daily
Arrive Harbin: 07:00 Train has soft sleepers only

There are a number of trains that operate between Beijing and Harbin daily with both soft and hard sleeper cars.

Then there are 2 Russian carriages attached to the Chinese train which operate through to Vladivostok. This is however a very slow trip taking over 35 hours to go 730km (at an average speed of 22km/h)

Depart Harbin: 19:18 Train K607 Opertes Wed, Sat Only
Arrive VVO: 08:00 Two days later. 4-berth sleeper only

pauljaymes · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:51 am Post subject:

Hi,

I'm still researching this trip.

My current plan is to show up in Harbin around the beginning of August and try to get on either one of the twice weekly trains to Vladivostok or the Trans-Manchurian to Ulan-Ude.

I don't think I want to hang around in Harbin more than a few days, and the clock will be ticking on my Russian visa, so what do you think my chances are? If I can't get on any trains within, say, a week, I'll look at other ways of getting to Vladivostok - ie local trains, buses or whatever. Any other ideas? Can I get a Harbin-Vladivostok ticket anywhere before I get to Harbin?

Once in Russia I'm figuring that the several daily trains along the route will make buying tickets as I go along fairly easy, provided I do it on the day of arrival at each stop and am prepared to stay 3-4 days. Is this realistic?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Paul

Ekaterina · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:42 pm Post subject:

Paul,
If you have a plan where and how many days to stop over on the way it is better to buy all the tickets when you arrive in Vladivostok. Summer is a high travel season in Russia and you may get stuck somewhere for a while.

pauljaymes · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:35 am Post subject:

Hi,

Thanks for that tip!

I think I automatically assumed that that wasn't possible, like in China where AFAIK you can normally only buy tickets from the departing station.

Paul

wotingbudong · Just Starting Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 3

There is a daily train from Harbin East Station to Suifenhe. Leaves at 915pm, arrivies at 0630 the next day. LP recommends using a bus to cross the border then continue on to Vladivostok.

I'm planning on doing this sometime between Augs 14-17th. Anyone else going to be in the vicinity?

pauljaymes · Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:07 am Post subject:

My trip's gone back a month so I might be there around the end of Aug/Begin of Sept.

Although I'm also considering going via Japan, either flying or taking the ferry to Vladivostok.

Simon · Just Starting Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: UK

Im looking to travel from Beijing to Vladivostok via the Harbin route at the end of august. Some useful info been given on trains etc here.

I need to book my train tickets for this section of the journey before i start my trip, because i need info on arrival and departure into China for my Visas.

Where is the best place to get the tickets prior to travel? I am looking at getting the rest of my tickets from 'expresstorussia.com' (unless anyone knows a better place for Trans-sib tickets), but they dont have info on this route on their website. I have asked them for some info on the trains, but no response yet.

Alternatively, if i cannot get the tickets in advance, anyone got any tips on visas for China, and how to get one without details of my exit.

pauljaymes · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 6:17 am Post subject:

Somewhere I got the impression that one might be able to just write an itienerary, including train journeys, to present in lieu of tickets.

In any case, buying tickets to get from Harbin to Vladivostok outside Harbin seems to be impossible; my plan is to speak to the Chinese Embassy when I get my visa, and if I do definitely need an outward ticket, either get a fully refundable air ticket from Beijing (or Harbin), or a cheap low cost airline ticket from somewhere and just not use it. Tiger Airways and Air Asia, along with others, run many low-cost flights from locations in China to SE Asia.

Then again, this is another reason for my considering a stop in Japan.

goresh · Just Starting Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 2

There is apparently a new, near daily bus service between Harbin and Vladivostok. I dont know any more about it than this page in Russian: http://www.vz.ru/news/2006/6/19/37992.html
If anyone can find out any details, I might be interested myself. I am in Beijing from 30/7 and my Russian visa starts on 2/8

Ekaterina · Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:09 pm Post subject:

http://www.primoravtotrans.ru
This is the site of the company which provides this bus service, you may call them to find out the details if only you can speak Russian, add the code of Russia ahead of the number. They have just started this service and probably some information will appear on the Internet soon.

SurfaceTravel · Just Starting Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 3

I took a train the other way, from Vladivostok to Harbin. This was part of a bigger trip from London to Hanoi.

Simon, I bought my tickets from www.trans-siberian.co.uk. They knew about this option. They also dealt with visas. I was happy with their service.

Our train car was separated from the train and left at a siding for 6 hours in the freezing cold, then it took 4 hours to emigrate from Russia, then another 2 hours of fear at Chinese immigration (a special experience for me). Over-all, 1.5 days from Vlad to Harbin.

If interested, details at www.surfacetravel.com, Phase II.

pauljaymes · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject:

To answer the earlier query, I just last week obtained a double entry chinese visa in Bangkok, without any discussion of how I was going to enter or leave the country, let alone mention of tickets. I think this is one of those theoretical requirements that is rarely enforced.

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