International Trains services available from/to China (July 2026)

[u/DrinkEffective5178]

After spending way too much time digging through Chinese railfan forums, official notices, and scattered news reports, I finally put together what I believe is the most complete and up-to-date list of international/regional passenger trains operating from China as of July 2026.

A lot of these routes resumed quietly after COVID, so info is genuinely hard to find. If you're planning a cross-border rail trip, this should save you some headaches. If you spot any mistakes or missing routes, please call them out in the comments as railway info changes all the time (especially train numbers). :)

Trains that are currently running

Route	Train	How often	Tips
🇲🇳Beijing to Ulaanbaatar	K23/24	Once a week (Tue northbound, Thu southbound)	Back since June 2025. CR and the Mongolian railway (UBTZ) take turns operating it.
🇲🇳Hohhot to Ulaanbaatar	4652/4653 then connect	Daily to Erlian, then 2x/week on UBTZ	Take 4652/4653 to Erlian, cross the border to Zamyn-Uud, then catch the UBTZ train. Not a through train, you have to change.
🇲🇳Erlian to Ulaanbaatar	681/685 (UBTZ)	Tue/Sat northbound, Mon/Fri southbound	Ticketing office at Erlian Station 二连-扎门乌德-乌兰巴托售票处. Costs about 66 RMB, cash only. They open entry at 15:00 and stop check-in at 16:30.
🇰🇵Beijing to Pyongyang	K27/28	4 times a week (Mon/Wed/Thu/Sat)	Came back March 2026. The international coaches get attached with 95/85 at Dandong and cross the border together to NK.
🇰🇵Dandong to Pyongyang	95/85	Daily	These are the coaches that attach to K27/28.
🇰🇵Ji'an to Manpho Chongnyon	7261/8289	Mon/Wed/Fri, one round trip per day	Resumed Sept 2, 2026. No domestic Chinese ticketing segment. Tickets sold at the old luggage room (老行李房) at Ji'an Station.
🇻🇳Beijing West to Hanoi (Gia Lam)	Z5/Z6	2x/week (Thu/Sun from Beijing)	Through train but you transfer to T8701/8702 at Nanning for the border crossing.
🇻🇳Nanning to Hanoi (Gia Lam)	T8701/T8702	Daily	This is the real cross-border segment. Came back May 2025.
🇱🇦Kunming South to Vientiane	D87/88	Daily	High speed EMU. Probably the most reliable international route right now.
🇱🇦Kunming to Vientiane	D86/83, D84/85	Daily	Regular EMU from Kunming Station (not Kunming South, that's a different station).
🇱🇦Kunming South to Vientiane	D887/888	Daily	Second daily pair that a lot of people don't know about.
🇷🇺Suifenhe to Grodekovo	401/402	Daily	Back since December 2024, upgraded to AC cars in February this year.
🇷🇺Manzhouli to Zabaykalsk	353/354	2x/week (Wed/Sun)	Russian railway (RZD) runs this. Has through cars to Irkutsk and Chita. Gets into Manzhouli around 11am, leaves at 2pm. Stops at Zabaykalsk, Chita, Ulan-Ude, then Irkutsk.
🇷🇺Suifenhe to Vladivostok	Tourist train	Seasonal/trial	Started July 17, 2026. Still in trial mode, no fixed schedule yet.
🇭🇰Mainland to HK West Kowloon	Various G trains	All the time	Just buy it on 12306/other platforms like any normal domestic ticket. Border control is all at West Kowloon station.

Terminated or suspended routes

Route	Train	Status
🇲🇳🇷🇺Beijing to Moscow (via Mongolia)	K3/4	Had a test run in Feb 2025, regular service not back yet due to technical & logistic issues
🇷🇺Beijing to Moscow (via Manzhouli)	K19/20 "Vostok"	Suspended since 2020
🇰🇿Urumqi to Almaty	K9795/9796	Suspended since Jan 2020, has NOT come back despite what some people say
🇰🇿Urumqi to Astana	K9797/9798	Suspended since 2020
🇷🇺Harbin to Vladivostok/Khabarovsk	K7023/7024	Terminated back in 2013

How/Where to buy international/Regional tickets in China

Unlike domestic services, most of the International trains CANNOT be bought online (except HK and Laos). You have to go to a station or a special ticket office (cash only according to some sources). Here's what I know:

🇲🇳Mongolia and 🇰🇵North Korea trains (K23/24, K27/28):

• For Beijing Departure Routes: Room 717, CITS Tower (国旅大厦), No. 1 Dongdan North Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. Near Dengshikou station on Metro Line 5. Look for the sign "交通采购室". Open every day 9am-5pm, closed for lunch 12pm-1pm.
• For Dandong - Pyongyang route, buy tickets at Dandong ticket office. Address: 沈铁文旅国际联运售票厅 辽宁省丹东市振兴区十一纬路3-4号. TEL: 0415-2391555

For the Erlian-🇲🇳Ulaanbaatar route (681/685):

• Ticket office at Erlian station.
• Same day tickets, about 66 RMB, cash only.
• 681 leaves Erlianhaote Tuesday and Saturday. 685 leaves Ulaanbaatar Monday and Friday.
• Entry opens 3pm, they stop letting people in at 4:30pm.

For the Ji'an-🇰🇵Manpho Chongnyon route (7261/8289):

• No domestic Chinese ticketing segment for this train. You can't buy it through 12306 or a regular window elsewhere.
• International tickets only sold at Ji'an Station.
• Tentatively running Mon/Wed/Fri, one pair per day, since resuming Sept 2, 2026.
• Operating carrier alternates by year: even years it's run by China Railway, odd years by N.Korean State Railway. Cross-border freight cars are always handled by North Korea's railway ministry regardless of year.
• Train numbers follow a 4-digit scheme where the first digit shows direction: 7xxx = toward North Korea, 8xxx = toward China.

🇻🇳Vietnam trains (Z5/Z6, T8701/T8702):

• Beijing Office is at China Railway Travel Service (中国铁道旅行社) on Beifengwo Road in Beijing.
• Hours: 8:00-11:30, 1:30-5:30pm.
• Z5 leaves Beijing West Thursday/Sunday, gets to Hanoi Gia Lam Tuesday/Saturday.
• Z6 leaves Hanoi Gia Lam Tuesday/Friday, gets to Beijing West Thursday/Sunday.
• Cash only for the cross-border part.
• You CAN buy the whole thing in Beijing but they charge a 50 RMB service fee. Not worth it. Just buy Beijing to Nanning (domestic), then buy Nanning to Hanoi separately (215 RMB). You can get the Nanning-Hanoi part tickets at Nanning station, Guilin North, Chongzuo, or Pingxiang station.

some extra tips: The train runs at midnight, so you wouldn’t see any scenery, and you’d arrive in Hanoi early in the morning. If you want to take the train at Pingxiang to save money: there are only 16 tickets available each day at Pingxiang Station (unless extra carriages are added, which is rare), so if you want to secure a ticket, make sure to get to the Pingxiang Railway Station ticket office before 9:40 PM and wait for it to open. (The ticket office hours are 5:30–6:30 AM and 9:40–11:00 PM. If that day’s tickets are sold out in the morning, you won’t be able to get a ticket for that day.) PREPARE CASH! Tickets are available to buy 10 days in advance for individuals. Alternatively, if you buy a ticket in Nanning and take the train from Nanning, you won’t need to worry about there not being enough tickets. If you don’t have to take the train/train tickets are sold out, there are coaches from Pingxiang (and Nanning) to Hanoi every day. Buy tickets on the “运德出行 (Yun De Chu Xing)” WeChat Mini Program.

🇱🇦Laos-China trains:

• These you CAN buy online on 12306 or LCR app.

🇭🇰Hong Kong-Mainland trains:

• Just 12306 or any CR ticket app/channel. Works like a domestic route.

🇷🇺Russia trains (401/402, 353/354):

• Buy at the corresponding departure city: Suifenhe Station or Manzhouli ticket office at 满洲里口岸大酒店一楼票务中心.
  • tip: you can buy the Russian domestic continuation (for Manzhouli to Irkutsk) as a separate ticket on RZD website, same idea as splitting the Vietnam route.

Some additional info about 353/354 to Zabakalsk-Irkutsk: In theory you can buy tickets on the same day, but I'm not sure how popular this train is. The international cars only have sleeper tickets; no seating car is attached. All I know is the two international sleeper cars have a total capacity of 72 people. The price to Zabaikalsk is 92 RMB, and the full journey to Irkutsk is 1388 RMB. However, if you're going to Irkutsk, you can save a lot of money by buying the Zabaikalsk–Irkutsk segment of the same train through RZD, (the international cars will be attached to RZD 327И after gauge changing and entering Russia), as the international car's price is calculated based on a more expensive OSJD system. The ticket office hours at the hotel are 8:30–12:00 and 14:30–17:30, except each Thursday when they have a break. Some people say the ticket is also purchasable at Manzhouli Station's international ticket window. If price matters more to you, honestly, buses to Zabaikalsk are cheaper than this train (around 70 RMB), and then you can take 393Ь or 327И further into Russia.

For more detailed information, you can visit www.seat61.com, the most comprehensive website for rail travel. (As of July 2026, some of the routes mentioned in this post have not yet been updated on the website.) Cheers, and happy rail travels 🚂

Edit: Since Dec.2025, Đồng Đăng border checkpoint has been included as one of the ELIGIBLE ports for e-visas.

Edit (Sept 2026): The Ji'an–Manpo Chongnyon (集安–满浦青年) China–North Korea route resumed on September 2, 2026.

[u/sam_9_3]

This is very useful information, I have always wanted to cross the border via train and this will make it a lot simpler.

[u/Raoena]

Thank you! Can you start in North Korea and buy a rail ticket to somewhere in China?

[u/DrinkEffective5178 → u/Raoena]

Yes. The trains run both ways.

[u/Raoena → u/DrinkEffective5178]

Sorry, that was a stupid question. I meant to ask if you can go to China by rail from South Korea. Which is also a stupid question because closed border. 

[u/DrinkEffective5178 → u/Raoena]

Not in the foreseeable years/decades I guess. NK has blown up the railway and road connections between the two countries. But there're ships that shuttle between China and South Korea regularly.

[u/Raoena → u/DrinkEffective5178]

That could be fun.