From Belgium To China

replied 2 years ago

Vlaams ou wallon?
As for now and at least till end of year, NOT possible-China imposes very heavy and strict covid-entry rules.
As this forum is proud of its name-in normal circumstances, as before covid came, you could do the ´famous´ transSib from Mockba=Moscow till Beijing, in fact there are 2 different routes, both weekly, one via Mongolia, one with a big halfcircle around that across Manchuria into China. Bookings for this could-in theory- be done via the normal russky railways site or the more known tutu.ru (thats a kind of booking site for many things in Russia). BUT in the main summer season travel agents usually snap up nearly all of the more favoured sleeper/bed spaces long before normal people can do-and they put their own groups in it or resell for higher prices.
There also used to be a weekly quite luxurious russky sleeper trains from Nice (Cote dÁzure-where the rich&famous Russky hang out), but stops later on and closer to la Belgique, to Mockba. it passes Germany-Poland-Byelorus and BY is currently also out of bound.
For further into China, there is now an enormous and wide stretched Hi_speed train network to nearly all major towns there-and even into HongKong.
The cost? Count on at least 4-5 times the price of a normal airticket-again IF all is back to normal
Opinions about this TransSib rather vary-one can read fine stories that seem to repeat itself in many years. The Gazet or the Standard have them at least 1/year or go to the library. But I also saw: its like an overheated prison for 7 days with only trees to look at. If you´ve never yet travelled in a russian train-I would advise to first do a try-out shorter trip, can also do in Ukrayna (much cheaper)-and then see if you think its worth it

replied 2 years ago

Hi.
As nltrainer explained already...
I can add this information - of course all based on non-Covid19 times.

1) Belgium-Paris
Travel from Belgium to Paris. Usually by Thalys high-speed-train.
Journey time 1:30 hours. Ticket price from 29 EUR.
Read here for details: https://rail.cc/train/brussels-to-paris
It is also possible to travel more direct from Brussels directly to Germany and hop into the night train there. But it has more style and is not really more expensive to start in Paris.

2) Paris-Moscow
It is an amazing journey with two nights on this direct train connection trough Europe.
Here is a video I made about this trip: https://vimeo.com/328151182
Journey time is 40 hours.
Tickets available from 180 EUR.
Read here for details: https://rail.cc/train/paris-to-moscow

3) Moscow to Beijing
I recommend to make some stops in-between, otherwise you sit 7 days in the direct train and the nature just passes by.
Journey time is about 140 hours.
The ticket price varies, but calculate with something around 650 EUR.
Read here for more details: https://rail.cc/train/moscow-to-beijing

4) China
Yes... a lot of high-speed-routes are available now.
For example the one nltrainer already mentions from Beijing to Hong Kong.
Distance: 2.400 kilometres. Journey time only 9 hours. Tickets available from 140 EUR.
Read here for the full story: https://rail.cc/train/beijing-to-hong-kong


If you have more questions, please just ask. Peter :)