Trans-Manchurian railway through Russia - 7 Days Non-stop!

The Trans-Siberian railroad is one of the things I'd always wanted to do. I love long train trips and this is pretty much the longest. Although technically I'd caught the "trans-Manchurian" railway which goes directly from China to Russia without passing through Mongolia, its still about 9000 km of train travel in 7 days - the equivalent of almost 1/4 of the way around earth, measured at the equator.

Ideally I'd like to have broken this trip up in several places and spent a lot longer than 7 days in Russia, but unfortunately Russian bureaucracy at the time meant that a special transit visa was the only thing available to foreigners applying in Beijing. I was allowed to spend the time on the train, had one night to stay in Moscow and then had to leave before midnight the following day!

If you get bored on long trips of any kind, you may wonder what its like to spend 7 days on the same train. At first I found that it was a little

Photo: Railway hut in Siberia, Russia, May 2006. E500 + 11-22mm