Vladivostok Travel Forum

My wife and I are interested in taking a cruise ship from Alaska to Vladivostok, spending a few days in Vladivostok --prinicipally to visit the Catholic Vladmission-- and then to travel on to Beijing, and from there to fly home. There is only one cruise ship per year from Alaska, and it arrives in Vladivostok approximately September 30. (Besides having the adventure of travelling across China, it is much cheaper to fly from Beijing than from Vladivostok). Does anyone have information on if it is possible to do this bus trip, and if so, what is involved in getting the necessary visas? We are Canadian citizens.

Thank you for your assistance.

Ron

P.S. I have an amateur radio licence and was wondering if anyone knows of any Russian radio amateur operators in Vladivostok? My callsign is VE6FV.

There is a (long) train from Vladik to Harbin via SuiFanHe. The route is short, but the journey takes long time. You should be able to get the through Vladivostok-Beijing MPT train tickets with Vladivostok-Harbin sleeper guaranteed + Harbin-Beijing sleeper supplement should be bought in Harbin.

If your timeframe is Sept. 30, in the theory I *** could *** get these tickets in Chop, but no promise as Ukrainian agencies are difficult to enforce to be compliant with the international railway agreements.

There are busses, too - but mostly to SuiFanHe border town for shopping. You can go from SuiFanHe by train.

Other option is

Vladivostok-S. Korea-China by sea or air - but it would cost (much) more.

Just to make this clear: There is no bus, but there is train. Vladivostok is traditionally considered to be the end of the Transsib and it is possible to travel by train from Vladivostok to Beijing by train on the Transsib. You'll be in for quite a culture shock though.

See www.seat61.com for more information on travelling by train in Russia, China and on the Transsib.

Do take up GyuriFT's offer to maybe get the tickets for you - he is the ultimate expert in getting the best bargains on train tickets.

I almost forgot an interesting detail. Depending where you live in Canada, going from Vladik to Europe and than flying to Canada is also an option - and not THAT expensive one. For two people a Vladivostok-Bratislava or Vladivostok-Belgrade train ticket is in 300 Euro range (+ sleeper reservations). This ticket is relatively easy for me to obtain because I visit Slovakia and Serbia almost on weekly basis.

If you have such tickets the Russian embassy usually gives you a 10-day Russian transit visa without much hassle. You still can visit Beijing as a "side-trip" from Vladik, Chita or Ulan-Ude (your choice).

Air Transat does fly from Munich to many Canadian cities and has reasonable fare structure. Bratislava-Munich or Belgrade-Munich by train is a trivial and cheap matter.

The "train" (one car actually) runs from Vladivostok Tuesdays at around 2 a.m., stands still in the town, whose name I've just forgotten (where the TransSib and Harbin line connects, something with Uss.....) between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., then it stands on the Russian border station for a couple of hours, then in the Chinese border station from around 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and finally arrives Harbin Wednesday morning at around 9 a.m. The Harbin-Beijing night train is fast though - runs 1400 km in 11 hours!

Ussuriisk, of course.

Hi,

there ARE busses from Vladivostok to Harbin. I just came back from vladivostok (i live in Changchun, China) and i considered to go this route (but i went via Hunchun and Yangji).
The Bus from Vladivostok to Harbin goes daily without sundays. It leaves at 6am and arrives in Harbin about 5pm chines time (there is 3 hours time difference now)

Hope that helpes, Tino.

i just came back from vlasivostok and i think my experince is nice. i took ship at the port and travel to a small town named slavyanka for about 2 hours. that's a wonderful trip on quiet japanese sea. when you arrive, there are a bus to hunchun. about 1 and half hours, you will enter PRC. in hunchun, there are buses every 30 min to yanji. yanji is a korean style city where you can buy the train ticket to beijing. if you want to stay for a longer time, you can visit changbai shandi where a huge valcano lake will be an impressive scenery.