Aboard the Trans-Mongolian Express I set out from Beijing to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
The journey starts as the crowded city center of Beijing slowly peals away into the rural Chinese countryside dotted with massive housing projects and nuclear reactors. That evening in the border town of Erenhot between China and Mongolia, the Trans-Mongolian Express train cars are individually decoupled, hydraulically lifted 10 feet into air (while you’re still inside), and the Chinese standard gauge wheel carriages are swapped out for the new, wider Mongolian gauge.
Continuing through the night in the Gobi desert, I woke up to countless herds of yaks and horses freely roaming the barren plains of Mongolia. In the afternoon, the plains of Mongolia become increasingly dotted with traditional Mongolian tents, referred to by locals as “gers”, and other makeshift housing on the outskirts of the recently industrializing Ulaanbaatar.
After spending some time in Ulaanbaatar I took a 14-hour bus ride to Murun and then by car to the tiny village of Hatgal, bordering Russia to the north.
There I spent the next several days herding yaks, goats, and horses with a nomadic family as we moved the herds from their winter outpost to the summer grazing pastures. Experiencing nomadic life on horseback, I was able to take in the beautiful spring scenery, the birth of a baby yak (which I was told was named after me), and many other yak related adventures along the way.
Locations: Beijing, China; Erenhot, Inner Mongolia; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Murun, Mongolia; Hatgal and surrounding regions, Mongolia
