What a lovely way to quarantine!
One Belt is mostly a vague political collection of infrastructure projects, not really a train service, and the trains that are associated with it are freight trains.
In normal times you can get to Europe by train from HK in three tickets: one ticket from HK to Beijing, one ticket from Beijing to Moscow, then one ticket from Moscow to Paris/Berlin/Warsaw/etc. It's a great trip, I've done it twice. About a week and a half if you hurry, longer if you want to stop off along the way (which means more than three tickets if you want to stop off in Russia, since there is no "open ticket" concept with the trans-Siberian).
At the moment I believe international passenger train service between China and Russia is suspended due to COVID, though.
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I suspect some posters on this forum took that 'One Belt' concept of a train from China to Europe in the 1980's...
Have always wanted to book myself on a cargo ship for the slow trip Europe. Quite a few travel outfits who specialise in this.
Unfortunately the Mrs. wouldn't be so keen....
I managed to drag her on my train trip from Singapore through to Bangkok, though making slow progress in convincing her to complete the link by doing Bangkok back to Hong Kong.
Air travel is boring.
Last edited by tparker; 26-06-2021 at 06:42 PM.
Haven't looked the last couple of years... but I had Cambodia in mind. Has there been any progress in Laos?
Cambodia's railways were left to rot, but in recent years had been under reconstruction, and I gather parts of it have opened up. If memory serves me correctly, it should be possible to get from the Thai border to Phnom Penh - but unfortunately will have to bus part the way at least till Vietnam.
Laos to China, or Laos to Vietnam? Good points. I shall look into those options.
Correct. The railway through Laos to China is supposed to open later this year, although pandemic restrictions may delay that or limit it to freight to start with.
There's another route, which is almost entirely by train and which I've done in 2019:
1. Bangkok to the Cambodia border (Ban Klong Luk) by Thai Railways
2. Royal Railway train from the Thai/Cambodia border (Poipet) to Phnom Penh (new route as of 2018)
3. Bus or private road transport from Phnom Penh to Saigon
4. Overnight sleeper from Saigon to Hanoi by Vietnam Railways
5. China Railways Overnight sleeper from Hanoi to Nanning
6. China Railways Overnight sleeper from Nanning to Guangzhou
7. Intercity through train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong
I should add that either of those routes is wishful thinking probably for the next 12 months or more, considering the pandemic situation in all of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, unless you're lucky enough to be a diplomat or have expert/investor status in every mentioned country!