Restaurant

Manzhouli is a 150,000‑inhabitant Chinese city about 5 km from the border. Residents of Zabaykalsky Krai come here for shopping: regional malls and markets mainly sell goods from the PRC, while a weekend trip to Manzhouli — which has both more choice and lower prices than the neighboring malls — is a popular pastime. It's hard to single out specific shops because the entire city centre is made up of shops, shopping centres and department stores. Many Chinese in Manzhouli speak Russian. How to get there: There are two common ways to reach Manzhouli. A bus from Chita via the Zabaykalsk border checkpoint to central Manzhouli costs 2000 rubles one way and takes about ten hours. The carrier is Chitaavtotrans; schedules are listed on the Chita bus station website. The Chita–Zabaykalsk train starts from 1650 rubles for a platzkart berth, journey time about 12 hours. In Zabaykalsk you must transfer to a bus to Manzhouli that literally crosses the border; that bus costs 1000 rubles one way. In March 2026 a direct Irkutsk–Manzhouli train was launched, running via Ulan‑Ude and Chita; from Chita the trip takes about 15 hours, and a coupe ticket (there are no other carriage types) costs 10,400 rubles. You can save about four times by buying tickets for the two segments separately: Chita–Zabaykalsk (from 2200 rubles for platzkart and 3300 for coupe) and Zabaykalsk–Manzhouli (600 rubles). If you don't want to organise the trip yourself, you can buy a tour from Chita agencies: “Madzhestik Tur” (10,600 rubles for 3 days / 2 nights), the Tourism Agency in Chita (10,500 rubles for 3 days / 2 nights), or “Vista Tur” (8,000 rubles for 3 nights). These tours typically include train travel to Zabaykalsk and bus to Manzhouli, hotel accommodation without meals, and insurance. Important: total travel time strongly depends on border conditions — queues at the checkpoint usually last two to three hours but can sometimes stretch up to 12 hours. Bring water and snacks in case of long waits at the border.