ADDITIONAL TRAIN # 23 WILL BE DEPARTING EVERY ON SATURDAY from BEIJING, 10th of JUNE.

Update: May 2010

Latest news:

Acccording to the train timetable changes, on Tuesday, June 1st, train # 23 don't make a travel to Ulaanbaatar and normally, make the train travel from June 8th.

So, in this summer until October, train # 23 departs from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, every on Tuesday, Wednesday, and additional train on Saturday.

Notes:

*The schedule for train # 23 from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar changes every year in May. And in the summer months there is an extra train travels from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar.

*On the trains there is normally a plug on the corridor (so the provodnitsa can vacuum the carpet !) and in first class there may be a plug in your cabin. Electricity is 220 v AC voltages. You will need a European type power plug with two round pins (similar to the two pin round plug in China as well) Often the power on the train is switched off and we have heard of entrepreneurial conductors charging portable devices in their cabin overnight, for a price.

*First Class/Second Class

Standard second class has four comfortable berths per cabin, with 36 people in each carriage. There are communal toilets and wash-basin at both ends of each carriage. In first class there are just two berts per cabin abd only 18 beds in each carriage, the toilet facilities are the same. On train #3/4/6/5 and Chinese train #23 out of Beijing there are also first class deluxe carriage, with a shower room shared between two cabins. Second class tends to be very social with cabin doors left open during the day and people chatting in the corridors, whereas in first class there is a little more space in the cabin and so you tend to keep the door closed. The advantage of first class apart from the extra privacy if you are traveling as a couple will be fewer queues for the toilet in the morning and you are closer to the dining car!