Bordercrossing Russia / China
 

Hello all,

I am preparing my journey next year. Could not find any info on the opening of border posts between China and Russia for international travelers. Did any of you cross at one this borders (with or without the bike)?

1. Suifenhe (Mudanjang) / Pogranicoyj (Ussurijsk).

2. Heihe / Blagovescensk.

3. Manzhouli / Zabajkalsk.

Thank you for your replies
mika

I know guys who have crossed between Borzya and Manzhouli.

Cant help with the others, tho Heihe-Blagoveschensk is one of the busiest border crossings ... loads of ferry traffic across river. I believe they recently signed an agreement to build an international bridge there.

I am sure whatever Chinese tour guide you hire will be able to provide you with details of what is possible from Chinese side.

Hello Colebatch and others,

thank you very much for answering. Its very difficult to find information.

The agencies I contacted so far, dont want to give me any information, most of them just send me prices that a out of this world without any details.

Manzhouli / Zabajkalsk: You are the second person that tells me, this border is open to international travelers.


Suifenhe (Mudanjang) / Pogranicoyj (Ussurijsk): There is a train, that goes from Vladivostok to Beijing, and somebody said, that I could take this train.

Nobody that crossed overland from Russia to China?

Greetings from Finland
mika

In general people don't cross that border because its crazy expensive, re Chinese tour guides.

People don't want to pay the chinese tour guide money, and people don't want to be babysat while on their motorcycle.

So for 99+% of the crossings, the riders stick to Mongolia and Russia.

I put the list of all border crossings of the RF in my dropbox, see link below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...heckpoints.pdf

It will show opening periods, times, bilateral or international etc etc.

Could only find this list in Russian.

GRTZ,

Jeroen

Hello again.

@ Colebatch: Thank you for the info, understood. But are this borders open for international travelers (without a bike) ?

@Jeroen: Thank you. Will send it to a friend that speaks Russian better then I do. More later about this.

mika

Crossed over from China > Russia several times during 1996 - 1998 and 2000 - 2002 but all the trips were business related and I am a foreigner with a resident permit in China, no motorbikes involved during the crossings - just 4x4's with China registration / plates and we stayed in Russia between 2 - 4 days only.

Hello all,


@TBR-China

Thank you for the information, but this means you crossed like a Chinese citizen.



@Jervig

Thank you again for this list again. Here is what I got from my friend according to your list:

1. Suifenhe (Mudanjang) / Pogranicoyj (Ussurijsk).
127.102.
(by car)
(by train)
(by bus)
(operating continiously )


2. Heihe / Blagovescensk. (this was hard to find in the listing as it's listed neatrly at the end of it)
401. 2.
(means that in summer time over river by ferry, in winter also on ice-road)
(by air)
(by bus)
(operating continiously)


3. Manzhouli / Zabajkalsk.
40.39.
(by car)
(by train)
(by bus)
(operating continiously)


This means, that all three border crossings are open. But the list did not confirm, that a tourist (non Russian, or non Chinese) can cross there. Will phone the Russian embassy, maybe they can give some info.

My next step will be, that I choose one of them and tell my visa agency in Germany.

Thank you so far.

Greetings from Finland
mika

Bilateral or multilateral is indicated in 5th column.

GRTZ,

JP

Just saw this thread; I crossed at Manzhouli in 2008 (US citizen). The Russian border guards at Zabaikalsk were a friendly bunch; we encountered them later at dinner and they gave us a huge bottle of Jack Daniels and one of them offered me his border guard hat (I declined, no where to put on the moto).

While China is generally a beautiful/fascinating country, I did not enjoy riding there, mainly because of the requirement to have a guide. We were on the guides' artificial schedule, weren't even supposed to stop for pictures, etc. It really sucks ALL the fun out of riding.

So, finally I got an answer from my friend. He said, all three border crossings are multilateral according to this list. So, I have a plan now, lets see what happens when I get there.

@motoreiter. Thank you for your reply. Wau, not even allowed to stop for pictures ... wtf. There is no way, that I will travel with a guide in China, even if this means buying/renting a bike or using public transport.

mika

There are a couple of awesome ride reports on ADV and I think here about people that just said "what the hell" and bought bikes in China and rode around. I don't recall that any of them had any problem, but generally too risky for my taste.

Mate, not really a good situation as Mainland China does not recognise overseas driving license and international driving permits. Would not recommend driving / riding without a Chinese license as it's a well know fact that quite a few foreigners ended up in detention for up to 15 days on the spot without any court hearings and booted out of the country afterwards (not able to return to Mainland China on any type of visa for 5-10 years). This happened to short term visitors and resident "expats" holding work permits and Z visas alike.

Legal motorcycle rental not available, the well known tour company Edelweiss pulled out of China as well a few years ago and not offering tours in China anymore. Only the Moscow to Bangkok ride by Edelweiss goes still through parts of China.

Some time ago rental car companies like Hertz / Avis in China were able to obtain temporary driving license for foreigners (short term visitors) renting a car through them and the temporary driving license was interlinked with the rental car and actual rental period. They only issued temporary China driving license for cars - not for motorcycles!!!

Do not listen to any so called "visa / driving license agents" in China offering to assist or help out, they provide you with fake documentation for thousands of RMB (Chinese Yuan) and some of them driving licenses look like drawn with a black crayon by a five year old.....

Own motorbike, only legal way as of today is either going solo (very expensive) with a government appointed guide through a licensed tour operator for China travel and / or find a group of foreign China travellers that did all the ground work already and join them to lower the costs involved.

Be warned, TIC = This Is China and everyone is after your $$$$'s....

Side-note, have a read and a few laughs, China National Driving Exam Questions = http://www.chinese-driving-test.com

Just got the information, that there is no train from Vladivostok to China, only buses.


@TBR-China: Thank you very much for your information, I have come across this a couple of times. I will see what happens, but as I said, there is no way for me to hire a guide ... and following your China rules ... I go for rule no. 1 ;-)

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-guide-78872-2

TIC = This is China!
1. Everything is possible in China.
2. Nothing is easy.
3. Patience is the essence of success.
4. The answer "yes" is not necessarily an indication of agreement or confirmation.
5. "You don't understand our country" means they disagree.
6. "Provisional regulations" mean they can change the rules any time they want, even retroactively.
7. "Basically, no problem" means a BIG problem.
8. "Signing a contract" means the beginning of the real negotiation.
9. When you are feeling optimistic, think about rule number two.
10. When you are feeling discouraged, think about rule number one.
11. If they tell you, that you know China very well, say NO - otherwise they'll show you, that you don't!

Mika, best of luck with your travels and the China entry & exit as the motherland has and will always work in mysterious ways.
Myself, living and riding for quite some years (25) in Mainland China and learn strange and new things every other week and thought I have seen it all by now but.... nuff said'...

China is a fascinating country, been all over for business, pleasure and biking, do keep us updated and we might meet up in person somewhere ~ sometime in the Middle Kingdom, it's a small world after all.

Side-note: thinking of the whole China scenario, actually quite funny as we have challenges to get out of China with motorbikes registered to non Chinese owners with non Chinese passports. Motorbikes registered to Chinese nationals have it way easier to get out to countries like Laos and onwards to Thailand, either with the bike owner riding or the bike owner providing the rider with an official statement allowing motor vehicle usage and international border crossings....