Trans Mongolian Adventure 23 days

A new take on an old favourite - this exciting rail journey takes us from the understated elegance of St Petersburg to post-Olympics Beijing. After exploring cosmopolitan St Petersburg and Moscow, we embark on our rail odyssey - traversing this huge land and witnessing its gradual metamorphosis from Europe to Asia. Next stop is Siberia where we enjoy some Russian hospitality in Irkutsk and at Lake Baikal, before journeying south - to Mongolia! Our program is unique as we catch a local train into the Gobi desert and enjoy several days at an ecotourism ger camp, mixing with the local community, before rejoining the rail line to China. Using local train services and breaking our journey in Inner Mongolia too, we get to see Mongolia at its unspoilt best.

Trip Highlights

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  Panda Chonqing Zoo China

  

  Tiananmen Square Beijing

  

  Terracotta Warriors Xian China

  

  Local Transport China

  

  Reflections on the Li River China

  

  Li River China

  

  Kunming Temple China

  

  The Great Wall Beijing

  

  Colorful Hilltribes Yunnan China

  

  Beijing China

  

  The Great Wall of China

  

  Relax under the grape trellises of Turpan

  

  Kung Fu masters at Shaolin Temple

  

  Explore the well-preserved old town of Lijiang

  

  Good business and bazaars, Shanghai

  

  Enjoy Sichuan cuisine and the Giant Pandas of Chengdu

  

  Kite flying in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

  

  Hohhot (Trans Mongolian railway)

  

  Climb Emei Shan

  

  Yellow Mountain

  

  Hangzhou

  

  Suzhou

  

  The beautiful lakes of Jiuzhaigou

  

  Songpan

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• Video

  Stir Your Soul in South East Asia & China

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From Our Blog

Past Travellers' Ratings & Comments

• • five

  So many memorable things, we had an excellent group and leader which really made our trip so fantastic.  In terms of the sights, seeing the panda's are a definite highlight as is climbing the great wall, climbing yellow mountain, the terracotta warriors, tianamen square, forbidden city, tai chi in Yanshuo, learning to play Mahjong and shocking the locals that we could actually play!  One of the funniest things that happened on tour was our group was posing for a group photo in Tianamen Square, while we were all lining up all these locals came out of nowhere and jumped into our photo, we then retaliated by jumping into a group of local's photos's (of course after being asked to join!)

  – Amanda, Minto, NSW, October 31st 2009

• • five

  Our local leader was brilliant, he went above and beyond what was required of him - even on days when we had free time, if most (or all) of our group wanted to do the same thing he would come along and organise everything for us, we never had to worry about anything as he was always fully prepared.  Even when the trip ended in Shanghai, he asked us all to give him a list of the things we wanted to do and places we wanted to see and he wrote down the addresses and names in Chinese for us so that we could get around.  On top of that he was a really fun leader and really interacted well with everyone on the tour.

  – Amanda, Minto, NSW, October 31st 2009