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Trans Siberian Express – 2010
Beijing – Moscow (go west)

Day	Tour 15 days		Tour 15 days		Local time	City	Program	Accommodation
1	SAT	31 JUL	SUN	22 AUG		Beijing	AM Arrival, PM Temple of Heaven	Beijing
2	SUN	01 AUG	MON	23 AUG		Beijing	AM Great Wall, PM Ming Tombs, Beijing Duck Dinner	Bejing
3	MON	02 AUG	TUE	24 AUG	1900 dep	Beijing	AM Imperial Palace, PM Summer Palace	Train
4	TUE	03 AUG	WED	25 AUG	1100-1600	Erlian	Change of Trains	Train
5	WED	04 AUG	THU	26 AUG	0900 arr	Ulaanbaatar	City Sightseeing Tour & Cultural Show	Ger camp
6	THU	05 AUG	FRI	27 AUG	2200 dep	Ulaanbaatar	Excursion to Terelj & Mini Naadam Show (Archery, Wrestling, Horses)	Train
7	FRI	06 AUG	SAT	28 AUG	1700-2200	Ulan Ude	City Sightseeing Tour & Excursion to Buddhist Monastery	Train
8	SAT	07 AUG	SUN	29 AUG	1300-2100	Lake Baikal	Excursion to Listvyanka village & Lake Baikal boat trip	Train
9	SUN	08 AUG	MON	30 AUG	0900-1600	Irkutsk	City Sightseeing Tour & Private Classic Concert	Train
10	MON	09 AUG	TUE	31 AUG	1000-1600	Krasnoyarsk	City Sightseeing Tour & Yenissej River boat trip	Train
11	TUE	10 AUG	WED	01 SEP	0900-1600	Novosibirsk	City Sightseeing Tour & Akademgorodok	Train
12	WED	11 AUG	THU	02 SEP	1500-2000	Yekaterinburg	City Sightseeing Tour & Excursion to Euro-Asian monument	Train
13	THU	12 AUG	FRI	03 SEP	1000-1800	Kazan	City Sightseeing Tour & Volga River boat trip	Train
14	FRI	13 AUG	SAT	04 SEP	1100 arr	Moscow	City Sightseeing Tour & Farewell Dinner	Moscow
15	SAT	14 AUG	SUN	05 SEP		Moscow	AM At Leisure PM Departure

Rates:
Standard compartment DBL 5840 EUR p/p
Standard compartment SGL 7800 EUR p/p
1st class compartment DBL 11400 EUR p/p
1st class compartment SGL 17300 EUR p/p

Trans Siberi Express – 2010 China – Mongolia – Russia (go west) Beijing – Ulan-Bator – Ulan-Ude – Circum Baikal Rail Road – Irkutsk – Krasnoyarsk – Novosobirsk – Yekaterinburg – Kazan – Moscow
Day 1. Beijing Arrival Arrival in Beijing – the capital of China – with its ancient history it has always been of great interest to people all over the world. Emperors and khans always ruled this Forbidden City, unreachable for ordinary people. Our representative will meet you at the airport and you will be provided by the group or individual transfer to the hotel**. Accommodation in Beijing hotel. Day 2. Beijing Excursion to the Great Chinese Wall and to the Ming Tombs. Welcome dinner will be held in the “Beijing duck” restaurant. Accommodation in Beijing hotel. Day 3. Beijing** During full day tour we will see Imperial Palace (“Forbidden City”), the Summer Palace. Evening transfer to the train station where your private special Chinese train will be waiting for you. Chinese train will pass through Gobi desert. Accommodation onboard the Chinese train.
Day 4. Erlian (transit town) In the morning you will arrive to the Chinese border. In Erlian railway station the Russian railway gauge system (“broad gauge” 1520 mm wide) meets the China railway gauge system (“standard gauge” 1435 mm wide). The Trans Siberian Express therefore welcomes you here in Erlian. The connecting Chinese train will arrive on the same platform. While service staff transfers your luggage to the Trans Siberian Express you will enjoy enjoy a sumptuous Chinese welcome lunch. In the afternoon the Trans Siberian Express will pass the Chinese-Mongolian border. All passport and custom controls will be held in the train, you may just stay in your compartment. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.
Day 5. Ulan-Bator and Terelj In the morning the train arrives in Ulan-Bator – the capital of Mongolia. Transfer to Terelj National Park (70 km). Arrival at Terelj tourist camp. On arrival at the camp some time will be given to settle gears and freshen up prior to lunch. After lunch you will have the excursion to Turtle Rock and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the surrounding area. Then there will be a short hiking tour to the top of Overlooking Hill to have a general view of Terelj National Park and then you will continue exploring the local area. Horse riding and disassembling and building of a smaller Mongolian ger. You will meet the sunset in the wide steppe and observe night stars. Accommodation in Ger. Day 6. Terelj and Ulan-Bator You will visit a nomadic family and get introduced to the authentic lifestyle and culture of Mongolian nomads and try traditional dairy food, after lunch transfer to Ulan-Bator and you’ll visit Sukhbaatar Square, Gandan Monastery and National History Museum, the Bogd Khaan Palace museum, climb to the Zaisan Hill for viewing Ulan-Bator city in the whole. Small shopping tour for buying Mongolian souvenirs. In the evening you will enjoy Mongolian traditional music and dance performance. Trans Siberian Express will leave Ulan-Bator for Russia. Enjoy the rest of the day viewing the wonderful scenery of Mongolia with gears, nomads, and horses passing by from time to time. When leaving Ulan-Bator the Trans Siberian Express switches from the Trans Mongolian Road to the Trans Siberian Road on its way to Ulan-Ude. In the train reaches the Mongolian border station of Sukhe-Bator and the Russian border station of Naushki. All passport and custom controls in the train. You may stay in your compartment. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.

Day 7. Ulan-Ude
This day we arrive in Ulan-Ude – the capital of the Buryat Republic of the Russian Federation. It’s situated at the junction of the Selenga and the Uda Rivers, on a crossroad of trading routes leading from China and Mongolia to Russia and Europe. The settlement of Nizhnyudinsk (former name of Ulan-Ude) was founded in 1666 as a winter outpost of the Russian Cossacks. Buryatia is a unique land with its wild and virgin nature, endless steppes, alpine meadows and taiga, Buddhist temples, nomad’s tents and shamans. During excursion you visit Ivolginsky Datsan (Buddhist Monastery) that is the centre of Buddhism in Russia.
Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.

Day 8. Circum Baikal Line and Lake Baikal Trans Siberian Express will present you with amazing trip of this day – Circum Baikal Line which used to be a part of Tran Siberian Railroad which join two great branches – Eastern and Western rail lines, disconnected by Baikal Lake. It was called the "Golden Buckle of Russia’s steel belt" due to the transcendental cost of the construction. The shoreline landscape which high rocky cliffs and walls made a great difficulty for construction of this railroad mostly represent. For the whole length of Circum-Baikal Line (less than 100 km) 39 tunnels were built, with a total length of 8994 meters. For the present moment this part of Trans Siberian Line is not included into general railroad line and it became an open-air museum. There is not much traffic on this railroad, only few local and excursion trains. The road starts from the dead end in Port Baikal (small settlement across Listvyanka village), goes along the picturesque southern shore of Baikal Lake and joins the main Trans Siberian Line in Sludyanka village. In Listvyanka village you will admire: Limnological museum, St.-Nicholas Church and make a boat cruise on the Baikal Lake. Lake Baikal being invariably called “Pearl of Siberia” is a unique natural phenomenon not only of the Asia continent but also of the Planet. It’s the deepest (1620 m) Lake in the world and is estimated to contain one-fifth of all the Earth’s fresh surface water. Vegetative organisms and animal species are 60% endemic. A photo stop will be arranged at a small village where you can get off the train, put your feet into the clear and cold water of Lake Baikal. A Baikal picnic is also a part of our program. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express. Day 9. Irkutsk In the morning arrival in Irkutsk, one of the oldest Siberian cities that is situated in the Eastern Siberia on a picturesque bank of the Angara River. Irkutsk was founded as a small settlement in 1661 and soon got the status of a city. At the end of the 17th century Irkutsk turned into the most important transit point on trade routes from Russia to China and Mongolia. During a sightseeing tour you will see Kirov Square, eternal flame, Orthodox Churches and Cathedrals, you will visit the bell tower from where it is a beautiful view on a city, the old wooden town, museum of Decembrists with private classical concert. Also you’ll visit Taltsy – an open-air museum of wooden architecture. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.
Day 10. Krasnoyarsk Krasnojarsk is the largest Siberian port on the Yenisei River. The history of the city, founded by the first Russian explorers, dates back more than 300 years. The variety and beauty of the Krasnojarsk Region are striking – high mountains and deep canyons, the boundless and thick taiga where one can see ermines, polar foxes, deer and bears. The national park Stolby is well known for its unique natural granite structures which rise up to 100 m high. It is practically untouched corner on the right bank of the Yenisei River. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.
Day 11. Novosibirsk The next stop on Trans Siberian thoroughfare is Novosibirsk – the capital of Siberia with 1,5 million population, Russia’s third largest city and the biggest of Siberia, celebrated first centenary in 1993. Its name means “a new city of Siberia” in Russian. Novosibirsk is also the largest scientific centre in Siberia which comprises the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and branches of the Medical and Agricultural Academies. During a sightseeing tour you will see the Red Avenue, Lenin Square, the Theatres of opera and ballet, the geographical centre of Russia – a chapel, Aleksandr Nevsky Cathedral, building of the railway station – the greatest in Siberia, embankment of Ob River, Trans Siberian bridge through Ob. Also excursion in Akademgorodok (The Academic City) with visit to the museum of mineralogy (unique collection of minerals, ancient fauna and flora of Russia, decorative stones), open-air museum of railway technique (the history of the Railroad, locomotives and cars of all periods). Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express. Day 12. Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg is a historical, administrative and economical capital of the Ural Region that forms a natural border between Europe and Asia. The city was founded in 1723 and developed as a fortress, gradually turning into the centre of the Ural. It was here that the Russian industry was born. Yekaterinburg became the place of imprisonment and tragic events in the life of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family. An excursion takes you to architectural monuments of Russian classicism of the 18-19th centuries, the obelisk there which marks this virtual border and you’ll also see Temple-on-Blood which is located in the place of Ipatiev’s house where the Tsar family lived its last days. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.
Day 13. Kazan Arrival in Kazan – the capital of the Rebublic of Tatarstan – starts with a comprehensive tour of the city. The Kazan Kremlin is the chief historic citadel of Tatarstan, that was built on behest of Ivan the Terrible on the ruins of the former castle of Kazan khans. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000. Also we show you the Qol-Sarif mosque and minarets, the Square of Freedom, magnificent Orthodox Churches and Cathedrals, the Palace of the president of Tatarstan. . In the afternoon you will enjoy a Volga boat trip with folk show. Accommodation onboard the Trans Siberian Express.
Day 14. Moscow In this day the train arrives in Moscow – the capital of the Russian Federation, one of the world biggest megapolis. The first part of the city-tour shows you Peace Avenue with Ostankino TV Tower, Garden and Boulevard Rings, Banks of the Moskva River and Newvergin convent, Sparrow Hill with Moscow State University, Bow Hill with Victory Park, Kutuzov Avenue and The House of Government (White House), New Arbat Avenue and Tverskaya Street. The second part of the city-tour shows you the Red Square – a magnificent architectural ensemble, the Kremlin with Cathedrals and the Armory Chamber – the Treasury of Russian Tsars with its unique collection. A farewell dinner at the city restaurant. Accommodation in Moscow hotel**. Day 15. Moscow Departure** Morning leisure in Moscow. Airport group or individual transfer will be provided by our service team to connect with your flight departing Moscow.