Well, first thing first.
Border crossing formalities are inevitable, but that doesn't mean they cannot be interesting. While airports all over the world, in vying to stand out from one another, are morphing into a uniform glob, overland border crossing still have something interesting to offer.
Exiting from the Chinese border:
The timetable posted on the train indicates that the train will stopover at Erlian in Inner Mongolia for about 3 hours before pulling out into Mongolia at 2359hr. This is just fine because one minute too late and my 14 days visa-free stay in China would have expired.
At Erlian, the Immigration and Custom officers boarded the train. It will be pretty much the same cast of jolly (or otherwise) officers at the other two more borders: the immigration officers, the custom officers, some ones from the military, and officers from the railway departments.
The Chinese custom officers basically just did a visual check of our carriage, request us to flip up the seats just to make sure there was no one hidden under them.
The Chinese immigration officer was a young lady in olive green uniform. She was friendly enough. It could be because of the party atmosphere on the train, with young white men and ladies excited about crossing over into the steppes of Mongolia. She commented on how one of the American passengers has slimmed down to almost in-recognizable from his passport photo.
The guy warranted a closer inspection from her. Otherwise, we are just required to stand up straight, remove our specs (if we are wearing one) and look straight ahead while she check us against our passport photo. After that, the passport are collected and the officers left the train with them. The train then went in for the (by now famous) boogie-changing while I waited at the Erlian station.Just before midnight, we were let back into the train, together with those who joined us at the Erlian station. The custom officers return the passport with the exit stamps. This is also when the the train conductors start to hand out Mongolian immigration cards and custom declaration forms.
The train pulls off at around midnight. I did not notice any military personnel near the platform or at the border.
Entering the Mongolian border:
The same cannot be said about the Mongolian border. Once the train pulls into Mongolia, you will notice the army in their camouflage. A timely reminder that Inner Mongolia is NOT Mongolia.
Again, the same cast of border officials from the Mongolian side board the train. The uniform are now white shirt and blue pants. More noticeable, if you are color-blind, is how much wider the brim of their hats is compared to the Chinese's. By now, your immigration and custom forms should be filled up. Not a difficult task since the forms come with Mongolian and English instructions.
The immigration officer run through the same stand-up-remove-specs routine, then left with your passport. Probably because we are entering the country, the custom officers were more thorough with the carriage check. The seats were flipped up, and the passengers on the upper decks were required to shift their luggages to show that their were no one hiding behind them. Heard from one Mongolian passenger that there were cases of illegal immigrants and marijuana entering Mongolia on the train this way. The custom then took a look at your custom declaration form, and seems only interested in how much currencies you have declared therein, circling the amount with his pen.
This time you are not allow out of the train. But the wait is not as long as at the Chinese border anyway.
Exiting from the Mongolian Border:
After one day worth of travelling across the steppes of Mongolia, it is another midnight border crossing. By now, the train is almost empty, with most of the passengers having left at the UlaanBataar station earlier in the afternoon. Those that are staying on to cross into the Russian border were awaken, bleary eyes to face the Mongolian officers again. The passports are again collected and the officers left the train.
Again, we were not allowed to leave the train. Even if we were, most were too sleepy and would rather stay on in bed. Some carriages were taken off and new ones were shunted onto to the train. There were also some inspections of the train done. When the train finally pull out of the deserted platform, you can see soldiers in their camouflage, standing at attention and saluting to the train, sending it off towards the Russian border.
It's about now that some Mongolian-looking ladies (they could well be Russian, but I wouldn't know simply from their looks) starts to walk down the lenght of the train. They enter the carriage and place some items of clothing on the beds and while leaving your carriage assure you in Chinese that "it's ok, it's ok". You may be puzzled initially, but once the train past Russian custom control, they will be back to collect. So, it is no mystery that they were importing their mechandizes while trying to avoid the taxes.Entering the Russian Border:
The train pulls into the border station under rows of harsh floodlights. It is now the depth of the night, and the floodlights probably serves to yank any passengers out of their slumber. Outside, the Russians are inspecting the train by hitting on the wheels with a hammer, as you hear the kong-kong-kong sound up and down the track.
If the border crossings so far has been too smooth and uneventful, you worry that this could be finally the one that you would run into trouble. The first sign isn't that good, with a custom declaration form printed entirely in Russian cryllic. Then came the immigrant officer, a lady who looks like she would rather be in bed at this hour then to check out your passport. She first rattled off her standard lines in Russian (which probably says that she is about to inspect your passport, so on and so forth.) When I gave her that puzzling look that says "what-you-talking-about?", she summarize her previous instructions in English with the concise "passport inspection!". After that the same stand-up-straight-remove-spec routine and she is off with the passport.
Then came custom inspection, which is more thorough then the one when entering. A male officer actually move your luggages around, stopping short of opening them up and looking inside. Then came another lady who check through your custom declaration. She looks more central-Asian than Russian, and looks like she have powdered up her face for the night's inspection. Luckily there was a English-speaking Russian onboard, which were able to tell me that it is safe just to but a Nyet (no) on all the question on the declaration form. The inspector look through the form and asked some questions in Russian and I just nodded with a smile. She was friendly enough, and that was that. For all I know, I could have nodded yes to her question of "are you bringing illegal drugs into the Russian Federation?"
After the passports are handed back to us, we just waited onboard before the train again start up and pull off the platform. They military wasn't visible from inside the train, but I guess they are hiding somewhere nearby.
