©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd PAGE ON THE YOUR COMPLETE DESTINATION GUIDE In-depth reviews, detailed listings 56 ROAD and insider tips St Petersburg p93 Moscow p58 R U S S I A The Baikal-Amur Moscow to Yekaterinburg to Mainline (BAM) Yekaterinburg Krasnoyarsk p144 p250 p119 Ulan-Ude to Lake Baikal: Vladivostok p216 Krasnoyarsk to Ulan-Ude p176 The MONGOLIA Trans-Manchurian The Route p290 Trans-Mongolian Route p265 B›ij¸ng p301 C H I N A PAGE SURVIVAL VITAL PRACTICAL INFORMATION TO 377 GUIDE HELP YOU HAVE A SMOOTH TRIP Directory A–Z .................. 378 Transport ......................... 394 Language Russian belongs to the Slavonic language Health ............................... 403 family and is closely related to Belarusian kak vas za·vut and Ukrainian. It has more than 150 million speakers within the Russian Federation and mi·nya za·vut ... is used as a second language in the former republics of the USSR, with a total number of speakers of more than 270 million people. vi ga·va·ri·tye Language & Glossary ..... 407 Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet pa·an·gli·ski (see the next page), and it’s well worth the eՖ ort familiarising yourself with it so that you ya nye pa·ni·ma·yu can read maps, timetables, menus and street signs. Otherwise, just read the coloured pro- nunciation guides given next to each Russian ACCOMMODATION Index ................................. 430 phrase in this chapter as if they were English, ...? gdye ... and you’ll be understood. Most sounds are ɩɚɧɫɢɨɧɚɬ the same as in English, and the few di pan ences in pronunciation are explained in the phabet table. The stressed syllables are ɤɟɦɩɢɧɝ ated with italics. ɝɨɫɬɢɧɢɰɚ Map Legend ..................... 438 ɨɛɳɟɠɢ S hostel ɚɜɫɬɜɭɣɬɟ THIS EDITION WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY Anthony Haywood Marc Bennetts, Greg Bloom, Marc Di Duca, Michael Kohn, Tom Masters, Leonid Ragozin, Mara Vorhees “All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!” TONY WHEELER, COFOUNDER – LONELY PLANET Get the right guides for your trip PAGE PLAN YOUR PLANNING TOOL KIT Photos, itineraries, lists and suggestions 2 YOUR TRIP to help you put together your perfect trip 5 6 Welcome to the CREDIT Trans-Siberian Railway .. 2 16 Top Experiences ........ 6 7 Need to Know ................. 14 COUNTRYCOUUNTRYTRY & CITYCITY What’s New ..................... 16 • TheTheorigina originalii l • Comprehensive If You Like ........................ 17 Mongolian Stations & Watching the Landscapes Stopovers World Unfurl • Adventurous Mongolia is a beauti- The glue between the The swaying of the train 5 ful country. Get into a 6 interior world of the train 7 as it crosses a subcon- Russian 4WD or van and your and the towns and cities tinent, the landscapes that Month by Month ............. 20 Mongolian travel mates will along the track is the myriad unfurl outside the window: be crooning about the blue stations, some little more steppe, taiga, farmed clear- 14 waters of Lake Khövsgöl, the than a ramshackle platform ings, fallow land and swamps, Singing Sand Dunes of the with a telltale name such as and all those Siberian settle- Gobi Desert and the glaciated ‘73km’ to signify their exist- ments of just a few wooden peaks of the Altai Mountains. ence, others ambitious piec- peasant houses fenced oՖ Choosing Your Route ..... 22 Need toCloser to Ulaanbaatar, it’s es of architecture beÀ tting and staking a dwindling claim easy to make day or over- one of the world’s greatest to existence in the burlesque night trips to Gorkhi-Terelj Languagerailway achievements. And proportions of Siberia’s land- Know National Park (p 285 ) amidst all along the route at Russia’s scape. Part of the pleasure Currency » Mandarin, Cantonese the glorious rock formations stations, sellers ply a busy of the Trans-Siberian are the » Yuan (Y; China), (China); Mongolian, and green valleys. For a won- trade for travellers – smoked rituals of feeding time and tögrög (T; Mongolia), Kazakh (Mongolia); Itineraries ........................ 28 derful experiencerouble (R; that Russia) com- RussianÀ sh, berries, (Russia) nuts, sausages, sleeping, and simply gazing bines natural landscapes and anything that will still a through the glass as time wildlife viewing, visit Khustain traveller’s hunger or make a and motion gradually À ll the National Park (p 285 ), where journey more comfortable. space. wild takhi horses roam across Booking Tickets .............. 32 When to Go the pristine grasslands of Your Daily Budget Budget less than US$50 # Moscow Arranging Your Visas ..... 42 GO May–Jun » Dorm beds and meals in simple restaurants or cafe and street stalls BAM Midrange US$50– PLAN YOUR TRIP 210 Life on the Rails .............. 46 Irkutsk MOSCOW # GO Jun » Eating in decent #_ É Ulaanbataar restaurants and staying RUSSIA # Kazan GO Aug–Sep # in hotels with private #• Tobolsk Komsomolsk- Vladivostok #• GO Jun facilities; in Mongolia Tynda É na-Amure #• #• #• expect a maximum Yekaterinburg #• Severomuysk B›ij¸ng Bratsk É #• # GO Sep– midrange of US$120, in Tyumen É #• #• early Nov Routes at a Glance ......... 53 Krasnoyarsk É #• Severobaikalsk #• China US$160 and in Tayshet ITINERARIES #• É Desert, dry climate Novosibirsk Russia US$210 #•Irkutsk Warm to hot summers Mild summers, cold winters High End over KAZAKHSTAN Mild summers, very cold winters Cold climate US$210 MONGOLIA » Russia is the most High Season Shoulder Low Season expensive (US$210); in (May–Sep) (May & Oct) (Oct–Apr) Mongolia you find high- CHINA » China: accom- » China: shoulder » China: bitterly end places (starting at modation prices February–April and cold in the north; US$120) in only a few peak first week May September–October domestic tourism areas; in China dining holiday period ebbs (except around and higher comforts » Mongolia: May and begin at US$160 Three Weeks 15 Days » Mongolia: peak September some ger Chinese New Year) Volga & Lake Baikal BAM June–August; rain camps closed, fewer » Mongolia: some ger late July–August; tourists, weather camps and smaller SHOESTRING PHRASEBOOKP book everything early changeable guesthouses closed From Moscow enjoy an overnight The 3400km Baikal-Amur Mainline around Naadam trip to Kazan, perhaps taking the (Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral, » Russia: beautiful » Russia: plan indoor premium train with showers and or BAM) travels through some of » Russia: peak June– but can get chilly pursuits or winter double beds. Spend two to three days the most rugged and unforgiving early September sports; take saunas Big trips, exploring the capital of Tatarstan with its Siberian landscapes. The line o՗ cially starts • splendid kremlin and museums; allow at in the drab town of Tayshet, but the closest least a full day for the city and another day big city, Krasnoyarsk, has an airport if you for an excursion on the Volga. From Kazan wish to skip all points further west. small budgets continue to Yekaterinburg in the Urals At Bratsk the train crosses a 1km-long and spend À ve days visiting the Romanov dam. The town also has an excellent open- sites and Urals attractions. Siberia begins air ethnographic museum where you can after that, with a night in Tyumen and see many of the traditional Siberian build- Multicountry side trip north to , which can be • Tobolsk ings rescued when the dam was built. Sev- completed comfortably in three to four erobaikalsk, on the northern tip of Lake days. The journey continues with two days Baikal, is the best base for exploring this in Novosibirsk, the uno՗ cial capital relatively unvisited end of the lake and it fibi d i’hidl i Looking for other travel resources? PAGE UNDERSTAND GET MORE FROM YOUR TRIP Learn about the big picture, so you 325 YOUR JOURNEY can make sense of what you see ONARIES wn in the n rth. The line wa later altered to accommodate Railway was built, ntial economic lobbies by including Perm, Yekaterinburg and it was quicker to travel from the railroad across a formidable landscape posed ongoing St Petersburg to Vladivostok History of the Railway .... 326 of engineering, supply and labour. The railroad cut through by crossing the s crossed countless rivers, scaled rocky mountains and tra- Atlantic, North y uagmires. Work brigades were poorly outÀ tted. The heavy America and the arried out using shovels and picks, while horses and humans Pacific than by ling going overland. Siberian Travellers ......... 342 were recruited, or conscripted, from all over the empire as m abroad. Some of these were imprisoned exiles being held in ers labour recruits from China or Italian stonemasons, who Russia Today ................... 346 1860 1876 1886–89 of Peking China’s À rst railroad, Following Tsar Alex- na cede all the Woosung Railway, ander III’s approval Russia .............................. 349 belief systems if Russia were east of the connects ShànghŴi of the idea of a Trans- (% of population) 100 people s far south with Woosung (now Siberian Railway, an border Baoshan District). topographical surveys LONELYPLANET.COM APPS EBOOKS MAGAZINE ssia loses However, the private are taken along part the newly project, constructed of the proposed route 75 nded port. without government between Tomsk and For travel information, Location-based Guidebooks For travel stories, Mongolia Today .............. 356 CREDIT approval, is demolished Sretensk, and around 5 the following year. Vladivostok. advice, tips & digital guides for the street for your reader inspiration & ideas Orthodox Christianity Islam » Tsar Alexander III Mongolia .......................... 358 80 would be Russian 1 would be Bashkir chapters 4 would be Tatar 1 would be Chuvash lonelyplanet.com/mobile lonelyplanet.com/ebooks lonelyplanet.com/magazine 1 1 18 2 would be Ukrainian 12 would be other China Today .................... 364 Buddhism Catholicism Other otherwise – that the Russian authorities use to intimidate bloggers and those who dare to speak their mind. Suspicious deaths include that of China ............................... 366 Anna Politkovskaya, the human-rights activist and writer gunned down on her doorstep in 2006.