My uncle told me :"I did this with friends in 1992. The journey could only be arranged through Intourist, the state travel agent, whose rep failed to show up when we arrived in Moscow late at night. Local people helped us with metro fares, heart warming at a time where there was little food in the shops unless you had dollars.

The journey went on forever, the restaurant car running on Moscow time so that meals (chicken bone stew) were only available when we weren't hungry. Our supplies of beer were gradually plundered by guards, mysterious fees of fifty dollars to cross into Mongolia, radish sellers touting for business, and at every stop a team of wheel tappers checking the carriages. It was an amazing experience to arrive in China having gone the whole way overland."