The following articles, taken from both Russians and Westerners, are full of useful tips for Tran-Siberian travellers, and relate some first-hand accounts of the journey. Through these, we hope to give a realistic and individual picture of the Trans-Siberian experience. Special thanks to our contributors, Masha, Nuutti, and Brian.

The account you are about to read details the experiences of Brian, an American from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who decided to leave the city of Miller and Harley Davidson to explore the Great Railroad of Russia, the mysteries of Mongolia and the majesty of China in an amazing and near month long odyssey that would take him from the Europe of Russia to the heart of South-East Asia.

Brian bought a one-way, nonstop ticket from Moscow to Beijing. This carried some benefits and some disadvantages. The disadvantage of a through ticket is that you don't have much opportunity for traveling off the train. In the week that he spent on the train, the longest he was outside of it was thirty minutes or so at some of the longer stops. This spurred one of the few regrets Brian had about the trip; he wishes that he had more time for exploring Russia, especially the great cities of the Urals and Siberia. All he got from Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg was a thirty minute walk although that was enough to make him want to go back to both cities for more exploration.

The upside of the through ticket is that it is much more economical than buying the several one way tickets that would be required to explore all of Russia. Another upside is that you travel in the international car which is much nicer than the standard car. Brian told us that the international car aroused a lot of jealousy from the other Westerners that he met who were traveling to Irkutsk in the standard car.

The international train is always divided this way, with a section for domestic travelers and a section for international travelers. The border is the dining car, accessible to all and, interestingly, carrying the cuisine of the country of travel: on the border with Mongolia (reached after just under six days), the Russian dining car was hauled off and replaced by a Mongolian one.

After watching a thousand kilometers of birch from the coupe car that he had to himself, our hero ventured out to meet some of his fellow travelers. Another advantage of the international car is that there are more foreigners on it and hence more English. Brian met some Brits, Finns, Irish, and a Swiss and a Russian and they proceeded to drink their way through the Urals, holding a huge vodka toast at the border of Europe and Asia.

A Russian businessman who spoke Russian and English was also among the inmates on the train. He educated the foreigners on the finer points of opening and eating the dried fish sold at some of the platforms and was a wealth of travel advice and stories.

The restaurant car also offered the opportunity for meeting people. Brian spoke Russian well enough to help his foreign friends order; once the restaurant car closed they took the party back to one of the coupes. Brian told us that this is a great way to make friends and is a lot more exciting than just sitting alone in your coupe for the entire trip.

In the event that the restaurant car was closed or out of that days budget, the bill of fare was Ramen noodles, prepared with the help of the hot water boiler with which every coupe car come equipped with.

In Ulan-Ude, Brian made the acquaintance of some traveling Irish who spent an evening teaching him Irish folk songs.

Of course no trip would be complete without getting in at least a little trouble. Brian and several of the foreign passengers, seeking to seize the spirit of adventure, pried open one of the doors and took photos of their friends hanging out the window over the railing of the moving train. This almost killed the Swiss girl, as she hung out almost directly in front of an oncoming train. She yanked herself back in with a scream and then after the train had passed, hung out the window for a photo op. It's all in good fun until the Provodnik catches you and yells at you.

Brian said that he had expected to get a lot of rest on the train, but found it impossible because of all the partying.

On the Russian side of the Mongolian border Brian stocked up on food and water and helped some of his friends buy souvenirs. It was here that Brian had the best food of his journey: piroshki s kapustoi (a cabbage pie), purchased from one of the over-present platform babushki.

In Mongolia, Brian met an old friend of his that his parents had hosted back in the United States. He spent a week in and around the capital of Ulan-Bataar. The highlights included a horseback and a camel ride through the Gobi. Both were quite inexpensive. He also visited a Buddhist temple with classic Mongolian-Buddhist dancing and shows. Mongolian Buddhism is rather unique, with a good Buddha being opposed by an evil Buddha and a large number of unique traditions and spirits. The buddhist spirit was, unfortunately, absent, when a taxi driver refused to let Brian out of the car unless he paid several times more than the actual fare (after a tense negotiation, he was able to get out of it for only a few extra dollars). It seemed that the Mongolians were constantly trying to rip him off when he was alone. The only time that he was sure he was getting a real price was when he was with his Mongolian friend. After experiencing Mongolian life and food for a week and spending some good time with an old friend, it was back to the train.

On the Chinese-Mongolian border, Brian had his closest call of the trip. He had made friends with a Mongolian on the train, and was invited out to dinner by him. They left the train and Brian, thinking that the restaurant in question was located in the station, neglected to bring his passport. They slipped out of the train station without clearing customs and met the Mongolian’s friend on the street. The friend had a black Mercedes jeep with about ten Chinese girls in the back. "Get in!" his friend said and Brian, resignedly, complied.

At the restaurant everything had been pre-ordered, including horse tendon, Chinese style, a heavily-seasoned though otherwise bland entree. All the food was set up in the middle of the table; everyone pulled portions from it. Arriving back at the train station they heard the train’s whistle, signifying imminent departure. They ran through the train station, again managing to bypass customs and avoid being stopped, and onto the platform, where moments before the train began to move they caught the attention of a conductor by banging on a window and were allowed back onto the train. (Ed. You should probably take your passport when leaving the train.) Continue reading…

The border also involved changing the wheels of the trains. The entire car was elevated and the wheels were exchanged. This is done because Chinese and Mongolian tracks have a different gauge. The Chinese soldiers at the border were very disciplined, especially compared to the Mongolians, who are not above having the occasional drink with passengers.

The route through China is designed for tourists. It meanders a bit through the mountains so that the Great Wall of China can be seen several times and from a few different angles. From the train you can get a solid perspective of one of the great engineering feats of the ancient world.

The people on the train advised Brian to avoid the tourist sections of Beijing and go to Mengtougou instead. Though harder to get to, it's much less crowded and much more beautiful. It is here that Brian got his favorite photo of the Great Wall, a perspective shot that showed individual stones in the foreground while having enough of a back ground to capture the expanse and endless feeling generated by being on the wall. He was also able to take several photos of the wall literally "disappearing" into the overgrowth as it is poorly maintained and the nature there is very rich. He also got shots of bricks that had been worn down by the steady stream of human feet over the course of centuries. After climbing your way to the maximum height of the wall you can come down the mountain by luge, or for the faint of heart, a gondola is available.

In Beijing Brian ran into two British guys that he had met on the Trans-Siberian, and they battled the 42-degree heat with several Coronas. They stayed in a hostel only fifteen minutes from Beijing's Moscow style metro. On the whole the city was easy to get around in; all the signs there had recently had English added because of the coming Olympics. The living conditions were quite clean and orderly, but the city cleanliness varied dramatically by region. Some areas were completely pristine. wonderfully harmonizing nature with development (a feng shui approach to urban planning), while others were quite dirty. On the whole it was more modern than Mongolia and more expensive as well.

There was a KFC right next to the hostel, selling only chicken on the bone (if it's not on the bone, the Chinese don't believe it’s real chicken). He ate there, but he also ate at many other places, including a dormitory at a factory he visited. While the food in China is much more varied than in Mongolia, you should be a little careful about what you eat. Brian was on antibiotics upon his return to the States as a result of something that he ate in China.

Brian visited the Forbidden City, the enchanting Summer Palace, and Tianammen Square. To get around the city's often clogged motorways, he took pedi-cabs, a safe and generally faster alternative to sitting in traffic. He also took an excursion to Shanghai, taking an overnight train. He found Shanghai to be an incredibly modern city, with around 3,000 skyscrapers – including the Pearl TV tower and the Zhin Mao, the fourth-tallest building in the world – and another 1,000 planned in the next five years.

Brian found some dramatic differences between Shanghai and Beijing. Shanghai is an international city with a long tradition of interacting with foreigners, while Beijing is, historically, a closed city. In Beijing people follow tourists down the street staring at them and trying to sell them things; in Shanghai there was none of that.

As Brian sees it, the trip holds as much adventure as one wants. If you want to take it easy and coast the whole trip between the dining car and the coupe, you certainly can. If you want more, all you have to do is take a chance and step out. He never felt any real anxiety or fear except for the little adventure at the border of China and Mongolia. The only regret that Brian had was a desire to know more about the places he was going to before he got there. Bring a guide book or better, two. Also, even though it is more expensive, going through an agency takes a lot of the stress out of the trip. Knowing some Russian also helps. For the future, he wants to focus more on some of the separate destinations of the Trans-Siberian, primarily Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, and the Baikal area.