It’s already started to get cool in Beijing, so before we head off to Erlian, we swing by the Yashao market to pick up a pair of what is possibly the greatest leap forward in winter comfort since the Snuggie, the zip off fleece lined cargo pant. Yes folks, like those jackets with the zip out fleece lining, you can now enrobe yourself from head to foot in polar fleece. The only let down is that you don’t get a free book light.
So with new warm duds procured, we go home to pack our food, sleeping bags and towels to drape over what we anticipate will be the fairly manky/crusty/filthy/smelly beds in the sleeper bus and take a taxi to the Beijiao Beijing Bus Terminal, located in the north of the city somewhere near the fourth ring. We planned ahead and purchased our bus ticket earlier in the week.
Intrepid Travellers Set off!
After arriving at the bus station with plenty of time to spare, we waited…….and waited and decided to amuse ourselves by watching the only TV in the place, it was too dark to read, as the bus station doesn’t turn on it’s lights. TV watching only lasted 5 minutes, they were showing drivers safety videos. These are basically Chinese versions of the extremely graphic RTA / TAC ads showcasing what might happen if your bus should happen to impact objects at high speed, however no one in the bus station is driving, but after living here for a while I’m sure it makes total sense to someone.
If you drink and drive your bloody bu hao
We watched our bus pull in and it looked surprisingly modern. We were fully psyched up and ready for lots of pushing, shoving, smoking and spitting on the floor, all at the same time, but surprisingly there wasn’t much of that, people boarded the bus in a relatively orderly fashion. We promptly got settled into the wrong seats, moved, got settled again and strapped in for the long 12 hour ride.
The beds on the sleeper bus look like an elongated Z in reverse, like a long lazy recliner. except they dont recline and aren’t that long. There is a sort of box, that your feet go inside (or would, if they are below size 6), presumably this minimises the stink, some have a built in pillow, mine didn’t, Tanya’s did.
Foo!
She gets a Pillow - I didn't 
Surprisingly the bus was no smoking, which I am happy to say “most” of my bus-mates adhered to, the driver had a few sneaky fags, but it was way better than sleeping with Chinese migrant workers chaining packets of the cheapest Chinese “darts” continuously for the next 12 hours. There was also a distinct lack of Mongolian Techno, in fact at each rest stop, they played Celine Dion esque Chinese music to wake us up, which was quite pleasant. In fact if the bed had been a bit longer and a little wider, it would have been an awesome way to travel.
I went on the same visa run mid winter, it was pretty damn cold. I forgot to write down all the bus information to pass on to other friends who were interested though and cant track it down any more. Do you have the info handy you could share?
Thanks so much!
Hey Crystal, I also cannot remember all of the details. We took the buss from the Beijiao Beijing Bus Terminal. It left at 5pm on a Friday evening and arrived into Erlian at 3am. The border opens at 8am and you are not allowed to cross on foot. From memory we walked to the gate of the bus terminal turned right and the hotel where we camped out was about 400m down the road. I went to the bus terminal on the Sunday to buy the bus tickets, it cost around RMB 200 per person, one way. Not sure if we got ripped off or not. Once in Erlian, we booked return tickets for that evening, before we crossed over into Mongolia.