Tommo Fun , Travel Tips. Find out how we made the crossing from Khovd to Urumqi in August Bulgan is not exactly a tourist destination… in fact, it is about as far removed from the tourist trail as is possible and, for Mongolia, that is quite a significant detour!
Still, apart from the eastern border at Zamiin-ud, this is the only other Mongolia-China border open to foreigners as of If you have made it to the western side of Mongolia, you can save yourself days of bumpy travel back to UB by exiting to China and then getting the sleeper train from Urumqi to wherever your next destination in China is, or just check out the west itself. Getting to Bulgan is cheap and simple though not necessarily comfortable. Head to the south end of the Black Market in Khovd and you will find a mass of jeeps, minivans and Russian vans bound for multiple destinations waiting for people.
We got lucky for the first time in Mongolia! We arrived at the market at We stop at a Ger in the Altai mountains for a pot noodle! The drive to Bulgan took 12 hours. It is quoted as being 10 to 12 hours and our driver was fast in fact, insane even by Mongolian standards.
We arrived in the middle of the night and the driver kindly let us sleep in his Ger for free — and fed us! This costs 5,MNT per person. Bulgan is a border town so getting to the border is a frequent request and is pretty easy. Mongolians are normally very helpful and will probably call a taxi for you, even if you have just met them. The ride to the border is on paved road what a relief! The Border opens at 9am, it pays to get there early. The border opens at 9am and closes at 6pm.
One of our Mongolian guides informed us that the border will sometimes close for up to 2 hours for lunch too, so we aimed to get there before 11am. It took us about 1 hour from arriving at the Mongolian border gate to walking out on Chinese soil.
