Almaty-Yining-Urumqi bus: reports, Q&A

[EdwinaC]

Hi,
I have just travelled from Shanghai to Almaty by train and want to pay it forward as I was really reliant on other people's posts to get across the border.
If you want to travel from Urumqi to Almaty it is easy. I did it as a solo parent bringing 3 teenage daughters with me.
I found it really easy to book all the train trips on trip.com which is a mini app on Alipay and a web page. Sometimes our passports didn't register the tickets so this was very helpful.
You catch a sleeper train from Urumqi to Huoerguosi. It leaves at 29:50 and arrives the next day just after 9:00 am. It cost about $200 for all 4 of us. Approx $50 AUD each. At Urumqi our passports were checked about 4 times eventhough we were transferring from another train. a bit annoying.
Then when you come out of the Huoerguosi train station there are a heap of people wanting you to hire their taxi or cab. Just say "Almaty" or "Kazakstan" and they will take you to the international bus station.
From there, you can buy the bus ticket all the way to Almaty. It was 180 RMB. While at the bus station, I recommend buying from tenge from the fellows walking around with wads of cash. You will need this money because the bus stops for lunch and to catch a taxi from Almaty to your hotel.
There is no real time the bus leaves so you just wait till it fills up.
Then you go to the Chinese border which takes ages. God knows why but it does. Then you go to the Kazakstan border which is really quick. One thing to note: the only toilets are before the luggage scanners so if you need to go, go then cause there won't be any others except where they have lunch and those are the worst I have ever seen in the entire world.
Then, on the bus to Almaty.
At Almaty, the same thing happens with taxi drivers desperate for your business. I'm sure there is an easier way but with 3 dependents with me and all our luggage, I got a taxi for 10000 tenge. Taxis are really cheap here so it was probably a bit much but after travelling from Shanghai by land... I just wanted to settle into my apartment.
I hope this helps someone and happy travelling.

[蒙塔根白狼]

Hi everyone, someone pointed the Sayran bus station website to me : https://ma-sairan.kz/

It has everything from hours of departure and you can even book a ticket !

[pat51db]

Just a question concerning the connection to Almaty: is it possible to take the bus in Yining or do you have to go to Huo'erguosi? Is the bus daily to Almaty? Any idea at what hour it is leaving in Yining? I would like to make the connection end of September this year. Thanks for all extra information.

[sunny0421]

Just a question concerning the connection to Almaty: is it possible to take the bus in Yining or do you have to go to Huo'erguosi? Is the bus daily to Almaty? Any idea at what hour it is leaving in Yining? I would like to make the connection end of September this year. Thanks for all extra information.

Yes, there's a daily bus leaving Yining at 9:30.

[teunt1998]

Good to know for people who want to do the same: we (Dutch couple) entered China (Nur-Zholy, Almaty-Urumqi) succesully visa-free on June 17, 2024. Chinese border control will ask you some questions but nothing too difficult! No control of phones or thorough baggage searches. No health declaration anymore!

[Ghiulia]

Hi!
We are planning to take the bus Almaty to Urumqi but we have a few questions about it.
1) We read somewhere online that the bus is a sleepers bus with beds, is it true?
2) Where does it stop in Urumqi?
3) Does it arrive in Urumqi at 5/6 in the morning Beijing or local time?
4) Does the driver wait for everybody at the border before leaving?
Thank you!

[jujuu44]

A report on travelling from Almaty to Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja and further into China

On July 27nd we, two german nationals and one durch national, started our journey to Chin a from Almaty:

1) Bus from Almaty Sairan Bus station to Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja. All four names describe the same place.

Busses on the 27nd left on 0700, 0800, 0900 and 1000. We bought tickets online which confused the people at the station a bit but borded our bus after all, be prepared to use the name Gulja in Almaty if you want to go to Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja. We left at 0700 Almaty time and stayed at STOP Youth Hostel in Yinining/Ili/Gulja, very nice hostel.

All accommodation in China we booked via trip.com.

Border procedures took 2h with 1:15h at the Kazakh side. You leave the bus with your luggage and get picked up after crossing. Then dropped off at the Chinese border post. Same procedure. Bus picks you up on the other side. Fairly easy. We reached Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja 1800 BEIJING time, so overall the trip from Almaty to Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja took us 8 hours. We could have caught the sleeper train to Urumqi but decided to stay in Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja.

On the next morning we continued with the fast train 5:30h to Urumqi, stayed there a night and then went with the fast train (1h) to Turpan where we stay at New Dap Hostel, very nice.

Train tickets booked with trip.com or China Train Booking App. We then further continued via train ti Xi´an.

Our way back: Sleeper train from Urumqi to Yinining/Ili/Inni/Gulja: We arrived at 0730. Bus station in the city (called Passenger Termina) opens at 0830. Busses to Almaty left on day of our travel (friday) at 0930 and 1000. Travel time roughly 10h as the bus stops in Khorgos and for lunch. Border crossing again super easy and quick.

[doryuuheki]

Hi, I'm planning to take a journey from Almaty to Urumqi and back in late September. Which option do you think is better for getting to Urumqi?

1. Direct Almaty-Urumqi bus. Sayran bus terminal website says it takes approx. 19 hours.
2. Bus to Yining (I can't find it online on Sayran website), then a train to Urumqi.

Both options seem similar time wise and it feels like direct buss is less of a hassle.

What is bugging me is the way back. Do I just spontaneously buy a ticket from Urumqi to Almaty (is there a timetable?) or I'm better off taking train to Yining (I found a schedule on China Train Booking App) and going to Zharkent/Almaty from there? I need to have a reliable connection for the comeback to Kazakhstan because I have a flight to Dushanbe to take on a Friday morning, therefore I've been planning to set off from Urumqi on a Wednesday evening so that I'm back in Almaty on a Thursday afternoon/evening.

[SweetPotato]

Travel report. I did Urumqi-Almaty by train and bus in mid-July exactly as advised by EdwinaC, see above. Everything in that report is more or less what I experienced.

Sleeper train from Urumqi to Huoerguosi AKA Horgas AKA Khorgos. It leaves around 22:00 from the main train hangar in Urumqi, stops in Yining and gets to Khorgos around 09:00. Very comfortable experience.

At the station you are met by a scrum of taxi drivers. Take one to the International Bus Station. It's a 10-minute ride, agree the price in advance. Even when sharing the ride it should be about 3 €, so not pennies but this is still China.

The bus station is a good place to change Chinese money to Kazakh tenge. Inside the bus station the ticket office is on the right-hand end, and use the queue for Almaty. Everything is in Russian and Chinese only. The ticket price is clearly indicated, it's the equivalent of 20€ or 30€ as I remember.

The bus then goes straight to the border and the formalities are as described above. Predictably, leaving China is slower than entering Kazazkhstan. The border official did ask to see some cellphone snaps but it was perfunctory, he didn't really care what he was looking at. He also asks where you're going. Best not to mention any central Asian countries other than Kazakhstan if you want that conversation to end quickly.

The bus then continues to Almaty main bus station. Uneventful ride with a couple of stops. On emerging from Almaty bus station, most of the city buses travelling towards the right are going to the town centre. The driver accepts cash, 200 tenge.

[doryuuheki]

I took the journey from Almaty to Urumqi and back at the end of September 2024.

Almaty to Urumqi - by bus.
Bought a ticket to Urumqi from Almaty on Sairan bus terminal website. The bus was supposed to depart at 8:00 and the journey was gonna take 19ish hours, I bought the ticket on the evening before. Lots of seats were free. The bus has comfortable seats but it's not a sleeper bus. On one side of the alley there are two seats, on the other there's just one. I had a seat in the row with single seats and I believe this was better. Most passengers were Kazakh - with Kazakh and Chinese passports. There were some Han Chinese too. I was the only European tourist.

The bus departed around 8:20. There was an hour long pit stop for drivers to have a meal around 11:00. Around 14:45 we reached the Kazakh border control. At 15:11 all passengers were cleared and we waited for our bus to drive into China. At 16:13 Kazakh time I already passed Chinese immigration. With a Polish passport I needed no visa. The officer was asking me standard questions - how long I am visiting, where will I stay, what cities I'll visit, what is my job, if I'm only visiting as a tourist. No baggage inspection, no interrogation, no phone checking, no installation of some sketchy software.

In Khorgos, the bus broke down. It couldn't accelerate beyond 20km/h. They drove to a parking lot in the city and we had to wait for over 2 hours until it got fixed. We left Khorgas around 21 o'clock Chinese time. There were some checkpoints upon leaving the city of Khorgas where one of the drivers took our passports for inspection.

The bus was driving to Urumqi very slowly. We reached the city at 11 Chinese time. So all in all, the journey took 24 hours.

Practical tips - money and internet.
Before setting off I set up WeChat, Alipay and Trip.com. I linked my Revolut card to WeChat and Alipay. I bought and set up an eSim on Alipay. The name was 'China Mainland eSim daily plan' or something. At first it didn't work in China but this was because my phone was still catching Kazakh network. Foreigners can buy sim cards in Xinjiang now, at least in Khorgos. When you exit the customs building you will be approached by people who sell sim cards. They sold me a sim card for 50RMB and set up VPN - Betternet. Betternet VPN was working quite shitty and randomly. But other VPNs didn't work at all. Physical SIM I bought was working fine with Chinese apps, for Western ones I needed VPN.

Suprisingly, the eSim from Alipay, was working like a breeze after my phone caught the Chinese network. It must have had some built in VPN because all the Western apps worked without VPN and the ads I saw on YouTube were Japanese.

Because both sim cards worked I had no issues using Alipay and WeChat Pay which worked like a breeze with my Revolut card.

I had 400 RMB with me in cash in case of internet issues. People in Xinjiang use cash and you won't have issues getting your change if you opt for using cash.

Urumqi - Almaty - by train.
The direct bus journey was not only tedious but I had no idea how to come back by bus so I opted for the train. I bought a sleeper train ticket to Khorgos (Huoerguosi). It costed me 168RMB for what was I believe the lowest class, open carriage with 6 berths in each semi-compartment. The train leaves at 21:50 and arrives in Khorgos around 9:00, 11 hours later. The journey was comfortable and it felt like a breeze. I fell asleep quickly and woke up around 7.

When you leave the train station there will be taxi drivers waiting to drive you to the bus station. I paid 15 RMB for the ride but the driver took 2 different people along so maybe thats why the price was only 15 RMB. Gate to the inside of bus station was closed when I arrived and it opened after 10ish minutes. At 9:55 I was already waiting in the queue to buy a bus ticket to Almaty. It was 180 RMB. The bus is waiting for all the passengers to get on and at 10:50 the bus arrived at Chinese customs. Immigration took only 20 minutes for me and most passengers but the bus was just standing outside the building for more than 1 hour so Chinese border took 1h 27 minutes. Overall. Kazakh border control took 1h 13 minutes from showing up at the border to the departure of the bus. Luckily in Kazakhstan time is 3 hours behind China so you "gain" 3 hours. The bus had one pit stop at a roadside restaurant already in Kazakhstan. Around 16:00 Kazakh time it was already at Sairan bus station.

Overall impressions.
Great time in China, the journey will be a fond memory but I would definitely not get on the direct bus again. It was quite comfy and the AC was working for most of the way but it was too long, drove very slow and broke down. If you can and the price is good - take a direct flight to Urumqi from Almaty, especially if you're short on time. Journey back to Almaty was way more comfortable and less tiring. Maybe flying to Urumqi and going back by train + bus is a good compromise?