Highlights on the Trans-Sib

Sightseeing

Moscow

 

With the largest urban area in Europe (as well as being the most populous city in Europe), Moscow is one ofthe largest cities in the world. The capital of Russia, as well as its cultural, political, scientific, and economic center, Moscow’s history extends back to medieval times. Moscow was a minor border town in its earliest history but was elevated in the 12th Century to the Grand Duchy of Moscow under the rulership of Prince Daniel. This Grand Duchy would continue to gain in power and influence after this, ultimately absorbing neighboring principalities over the following centuries, such as the Grand Duchy of Tver and the Novgorod Republic. Ultimately Ivan III extended the city’s territory to encompass all of the Rus’ territory, taking for himself the title of Tsar (though officially his son, known as Ivan the Terrible, was the first actual Tsar of Russia). Moscow has seen numerous wars through its history, from the Mongols to the Nazis, and has been under siege numerous times. Today a flourishing city, Moscow has an impressive metro system to facilitate visitors touring the city.

Moscow has numerous points of cultural and historical interest, notably Red Square and the Kremlin, but also St Basil’s Cathedral, over a hundred parks and gardens, the Bolshoi Theatre, Tretyakov Gallery, and the Moscow State Circus. Key architectural points include the Ostankino Tower and the Seven Sisters, a group of skyscrapers during the Stalinist period.

Irkutsk

Irkutsk began as a 17th Century gold-trading settlement which also served to collect the fur tax from the local Buryats. When the first road was constructed to Moscow in 1760, trade brought a number of luxuries and other items to the town for the first time. About 60 years later, the town was the seat of the Governor-General of East Siberia, and it later received an influx of exiled elites from St. Petersburg involved in the Decembrist revolt. As a consequence, the city developed a surprisingly rich cultural and intellectual life which continues to this day, with a large number of museums and scientific institutes.

Taltsy Ethnographic Museum

Also called Taltsy Village, this unique open-air museum covers 67 hectares near Listvyanka and showcases over 40 preserved buildings including a watermill, a 17th Century watchtower, two churches, and various farms and peasant homes. The museum also includes 8000 exhibits relating to daily life in Siberia in the 17th to 19th Centuries. Regular folk festivals are also hosted here.

Museum of the Decembrists

Located in the Volkonsky Mansion, the former home of one of the aristocratic families exiled to Irkutsk in the wake of the failed Decembrist revolt, this museum showcases the lives of the Trubetskoy and Volkonsky families and the events of their exile. Of special note is a monument to the wives of the Decembrists who left behind everything to follow their husbands into exile.

Cathedral of the Holy Sign

Known also as Znamensky Monastery, this holy site has a towering iconostasis, a sarcophagus containing holy relics, and a beautifully ornate interior. The graveyard holds the grave of Grigory Shelekhov, who claimed Alaska for Russia, as well as a number of Decembrists.

Listvyanka

Listvyanka is a small town of wooden, Siberian-style houses on the shore of Lake Baikal. Some 70 km from Irkutsk, it has a population of fewer than 2000 people. Among its places of interest are the Taltsy Village, an open-air museum of various preserved examples of wooden buildings, and the Baikal Limnology Museum, showcasing the ecology and history of the lake. This town is also home to a handful of sacred sites, including the Church of St Nicholas, Shaman Rock, and the Obo (sacred for the Buryat people who live in the region). The town features a number of shops selling local crafts and souvenirs to visitors.

Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar holds half the population of the country, over a million people, and accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s GDP. While there was a nomadic Buddhist center on this site at the joining of the Tuul and Selbe Rivers from as early as the 17^th Century, it changed location frequently. A permanent settlement didn’t exist until 1778. Sitting on a windswept plateau, the city is noted for its severe winters and for being the coldest capital city in the world.

Sukhbaatar Square

Renamed briefly to Chinggis Square in honor of Genghis Khan in 2013, Sukhbaatar Square is the central square of Ulaanbaatar. Named for national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar, the square once held his tomb and now features an equestrian statue of him.

Gandan Monastery

The Gandantegchinlen Monastery, known more commonly simply as Gandan Monastery, was one of only a few such monasteries to escape destruction in the 1930’s, when the Stalin-esque leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan led purges which killed some 35000 Mongolians, including 15000 lamas. Closed during this period, it reopened in 1944, and is today the largest Buddhist monastery in the city with some 150 monks residing there. The monastery features the largest indoor statue in the world, a 26 meter statue of Avalokitesvara.

Natural History Museum

Established in 1924 as the National Museum, the Natural History Museum has over 6000 specimens in its collection, including a nearly complete Tarbosaurus skeleton and a set of Protoceratops eggs. Museum sections include geography, biography, paleontology, and anthropology, and the displays showcase a number of species found in Mongolia including the snow leopard and red wolf.

Beijing

Beijing is the most populous capital city in the world, with over 21 million people. One of the oldest cities in the world, Beijing is over three thousand years old and has an impressive array of cultural and religious sites, including seven UNESCO World Heritage sites (the Great Wall, Grand Canal, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian, and the Forbidden City). The city has been the nation’s political center for over eight centuries, as well as its cultural and educational hub, and is one of the world’s major economic centers.

The Ming Tombs

The Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty, also called simply the Ming Tombs, are a group of Imperial tombs dating from the 15^th through the 17^th Centuries. They are located over a 25 square mile area in Beijing’s Changping District, just under 30 miles north of city center. Currently, three of the tombs are open to the public – Dingling (the only one to have been excavated), Changling and Zhaoling.

The Great Wall

Walls along the northern border of China began to be built as early as the 7^th Century BC, protecting the borders of various ancient Chinese states. However, when a unified China was built by the ascension the first Qin emperor (Qin Shi Huang) in 221 BC, the wall sections which divided the formerly separate states were ordered destroyed. The remaining wall sections (those actually on the northern border) were to be joined into a single, long wall. Few of these walls, made mostly from rammed earth, remain. Later dynasties would rebuild or expand sections of the wall, but it was the Ming dynasty that created the most famous sections of the Great Wall known today.

The Forbidden City

This 15^th Century palace served as the imperial residence of 24 emperors and was the seat of government for over 500 years, beginning in 1420 (during the reign of the third Ming emperor) until the end of the Quing dynasty in 1924. Now a World Heritage site, the palace consists of some 980 buildings and covers approximately 178 acres and sees some 14 million visitors each year.

Prices and Terms

Prices are per person based on double occupancy in a specific hotel. If you travel in a group but decide to stay in a single room, please add the single supplement to the price. We offer discounts for groups of 7 or more. To inquire about group rates, please contact us.

Prices include:

• Transfers airport to hotel / hotel to airport or train station to hotel / hotel to train station;
• Train tickets 1st (2-berth compartment*) or 2nd class (4-berth compartment);**
• Russian visa invitation (single entry).
• Bilingual guide for all programs (Russian/English);
• Accommodation in 3 star hotesl, DBL, B&B;
• Excursions according to programs;
• Entrance tickets to museums.;
• Free visa invitation - the document necessary for obtaining a Russian visa when applying for one at the local Russian Consulate in your country. PLEASE NOTE: your passport should be valid for no less than 6 months after the planned departure from Russia and it should have at least 2 blank pages. The process of applying for a visa may take a long time and we recommend that you start the process 3 months before your trip. In case you are booking the trip last minute, we recommend that you check with the Russian Consulate in your country to determine if you have enough time for the visa application process. In case you have to cancel your trip because of visa issues, our standard cancellation policy will be applied.

Not included:

• Meals and snacks not listed in the program or listed as “optional”;
• Visa fees levied by the Russian, Mongolian and/or Chinese Embassies. For US, UK and Canadian citizens, our company offers Full Visa Support. With Full Visa Support, you send your passport and other documentation to us or our visa agent and we obtain the Russian visa for you.
• International airfare. Our Russian tours are offered as land only.  Please arrange your own airfare and we will meet you at the airport and handle everything else on the ground in Russia.
• Fee for oversized and overweight luggage;
• Travel insurance. We highly recommend to purchase travel insurance before embarking on your trip to Russia. It’s always good to have extra protection while traveling far from home. Click here to learn more.
• Tips.

Payment policy:

To book a tour, a 30% deposit is required at the time of booking. The trip must be fully paid 61 days before departure.

Cancellation policy:

• 61 or more days before departure - a fee equal to 15% of the entire package will be charged.
• 60-15 days before departure - a fee equal to 30% of the entire package will be charged.
• 14 days or less before departure or no-show - a fee equal to 100% of the package will be charged.