Having been granted your Mongolian visa, you are now free to head to the China-Mongolia border to cross from Erlian to Zamyn-Uud. The Chinese border crossing in Erlian opens at around 08:30 and closes around 18:00. It is no more than a ten minute drive from the centre of town. There are plenty of taxis buzzing about and it will only cost a few Yuan. Ask to go to the guómén (literally, nation door).
For those of you intending to cross the China-Mongolia border and travel from Erlian to Zamyn-Uud, the first thing to note is that, unless you are exempt, you will need a Mongolian visa in order to do so. I tried entering Mongolia without a visa in the mistaken belief that I didn’t need one. It didn’t work. Get one before you travel.
You can apply for a Mongolian visa before you reach the border, usually in Beijing or even in Hohhot. As of 2008, you can no longer apply for a Mongolian visa in Hong Kong. If it is not possible to get your visa before you travel, you should get one when you reach the China-Mongolia border in Erlian (Erenhot).
Though we left Erlian at 17:10, it was 21:25 by the time train 685 departed Zamyn-Uud for Ulaanbaatar. The Chinese officials did their thing on the one side of the China-Mongolia border, while the Mongolians did theirs on the other. We then had a couple of hours waiting around at Zamyn-uud station while the train’s bogies were changed to fit the wider Mongolian rail gauge, before we were finally on our way again.
The Mongolian visa office at the consulate in Erlian opened at 8am. I was there at twenty-to. There was only one other guy there. Another arrived at around ten-past. The office still hadn’t opened and there was no one that looked like doing so. I needed to get my visa and get from Erlian to Mongolia forthwith.
It got to about 8:20 before someone emerged from the rear door. From shoes to belt he was as uniformed and official as could be. From belt upwards, it was vest all the way. He was a young guy with a cigarette hanging from his bottom lip as casually as he was dressed. He told us to come back at 9:00. The office would be open then. I wasn’t going anywhere.
I spent the afternoon after my failure to negotiate the Erlian border crossing trying to forget about my predicament. There was nothing I could do but wait. I took a walk around Erlian town but found nothing but wide dusty roads stretching into the distance. The buildings were built big but seemingly oversize. It was a town of not much more than unpopulated space.
I’d stayed the night, or what was left of it, in a cheap hotel somewhere in town that the driver had found after our late night/early morning drive from Hohhot. It cost Y100 and I was too tired to haggle. Tomorrow I needed to get my Mongolian visa, negotiate the Erlian border crossing, and get on to Zamyn-Uud. I took a quick look at the directions I’d printed to get to the Mongolian consulate, and there, at the top, were the opening hours: M-F; 8-12. Today was Saturday. Tomorrow was Sunday. Shit!
We arrived in Hohhot on the Beijing-Hohhot train on time, 20:30, enough time to buy a ticket for the Hohhot to Erlian train leaving at 21:38. But not only were there no tickets left that night, there was no train to Erlian at all. There was no bus to Erlian when I walked across to the bus station, they’d all left earlier in the day, and though I bought a ticket for the next morning’s train anyway to save having to go through the ordeal of queuing again, I still needed to get to Erlian faster than tomorrow’s train would get me there.