Trans-Siberian railway: Beijing - Ulaanbaatar

Our first Trans-Siberian (technically, Trans-Mongolian) railway segment was from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We had our own 6 foot by 5 foot "soft sleeper" berth in this German-made train operated by Mongolian Railways.
- The berth consisted of: 2 lightly padded benches, a window that was not designed open, 4 reading lights and a centrally controlled air-conditioning system that only worked at night.
- The amenities provided were: 2 wool blankets, a package of fresh sheets and pillow case (but no pillow), and a thermos containing hot water for tea/coffee.
- Our "non-smoking" train carriage had: 2 bathrooms (mens and womens) that were very well cleaned/maintaned throughout the trip, but did not have running water or a shower, and could not be used when stoppeat a train station. Additionally, potable hot water was available at the end of each carriage.
- The train had a shared (and smoke-filled) dining car which sold bad cheap food and good cheap (albeit room-temperature) beer.

Traveling through the Chinese countryside provides a glimpse of the huge disparity between city life and those of the farmers and factory workers. As discussed in a previous post, life for these folks certainly doesn't appear to be terribly great. From that perspective, taking the train was very insightful, because we saw a side of the country very few westerners get to see.

Changing running gear:
Because they were paranoid about being invaded, the Russians designed their train tracks to be a couple of inches wider than the rest of the world. As a result, our train had to change running gear (bogies) at the border between China and Mongolia (Mongolia was under Russian control when the railway was built). Basically, while you're sitting in the train, a machine lifts the train car, pushes the Chinese gear to another track, rolls in the Russian/Mongolian gear and lowers the train car. The entire process takes an hour or two, and is very cool to watch.

What is not cool is that the process of going through Chinese immigration and customs, changing running gear, and Mongolian immigration and customs took about 5 hours, during which time you cannot get off the train, the electricity is turned off (hence, no air-conditioning or reading lights) and the bathrooms are closed. Oh, and this occurs between 8.30pm and 1.30am. In the US, airlines are fined big bucks for leaving passengers on the tarmac in these conditions -- here's its business as usual.

Having said all that, the trip took about 30 hours, and from my perspective, other than 5 hours of sitting at the border, was reasonably pleasant. Marie did not enjoy it as much (especially the sitting around), but found it manageable.