Khorgos border crossing Q&A (Almaty - Urumqi)

[LiangPingPiJiu]

@nielba:
yes, it's about BakuBound said, just showing your passports all the time and wrtiting down your (chinese) telephone number. Don't know what they do if you say you don't have a chinese number, probably letting you wait for 10 minutes, considering what to do and then let you go.
It's annoying and letting at least me feeling uncomfortable, but compared with the border crossing it's nossing.

I also think this bus from Almaty to Urumqi is still the best option - but still, it's the same border crossing.
I did this trip twice due to climate reasons, since I'm often going to south-china. But I guess this time was the last time - at least for the next few years, decades,... Who knows.. Especially the checking of my digital equipment is for me an absolute no-go.

[nielba]

yeah I totally see, I was just thinking about my ebook reader with 1000+ books and how to know which one might put me in a bad position, a lottery I guess.. other than that normal tourist photos on my camera and phone, not pleasant but..

maybe more about the questions.. "normal" stuff like where you going or where you staying..?! better to stick with a general Beijing/Shanghai and then fly out or what..?!

[imdumas]

Hi everyone,

We just crossed the border between China and Kazachstan at Khorgos - and Nur Zholy.

We took the overnight train from the Urumqi high speed train station to Khorgos (Huo'erguosi). It is a normal train and it will take about 9 hours and cost 170 yuan. You will arrive early morning in Khorgos (huoerguosi) . Khorgos is a little far from the train station, but there are taxis once you arrive. We paid 30 yuan, but you could probably pay less if you bargain. If you tell the driver you go to kazachstan he drops you at the bus station. [...]

Hello everyone!

I just arrived to Almaty, from Urumqi. I decided to take the same way than campingoncloudnine. I find it cheap and convenient. Remember, the border is now 5KM south from the old Khorgos border, the new name is Nur Zholy (pronounced as 'nur yoly'). Coordinates of the Chinese side passenger entrance: 44.159605, 80.41499

However I did something different. These guys arrived to Huo er guo si' and went to the city bus station. They took a bus which drove them to the Chinese border, and then crossed to Zharkent.

In my case, I went to the border directly with a taxi: 35 yuan. After exiting China, there is a Kazakh bus that goes STRAIGHT to Almaty (you must buy the ticket on the spot because the bus starts in the no man's land, this bus never touchs Chinese territory)
It is then possible to skip Zharkent!! Price of the bus: 100yuan (I feel I could have bargained)

In my case the bus departed at 12:15pm. But the chinese police told me that the bus leaves when full... By the way, if you ask politely, they look at your mobile in front of you (pictures, apps etc).

IMPORTANT: it is true that the border opens at 10:30am in the morning (Beijing Time). It doesn't make sense to arrive early at Huo er guo si'. The police let me enter at 10:40am and I was the first at the queue... So take the latest train guys...

EXTRA!! if your train arrives early (08am or so). You have enough time to visit Almaliq's Tuglugh Timur mausoleum (coordinates 44.240361, 80.535942) . It's a good idea for not getting bored in front of this desertic border... I asked the price to the taxi drivers: Almaliq + going to the Border costs 100yuan (from train station). Bargaining is possible.

[StephParis]

Also Kashgar was not too much hassle, as long as you are not Uyghur. Too bad the place is ruined, with or without police state. Tashkorgan was awesome, but at some forums it is being said one cannot travel there independently by public transport anymore. It seemed that if you sticked to the 'approved' tourist spots it was okay, only some hassle around train stations.

Not sure to understand : have you been freely (= by public transport and without special permit) from Kashgar to Tashkorgan ? My plan is to cross Qolma pass to enter Tajikistan but I can't really figure out how "easy" is it to make it from Kasghar, including a one-day stop in Tashkorgan.

[Jealgu]

Yes, I went freely last year. But from what I gathered that is a thing of the pass. Permits, guides, tourgroups is the available flavour now.

I have heard the suggestion, but no story of someone actually doing it, that with a paki visa you are allowed, perhaps meaning that you can get a permit, to go by public bus. Not sure if this works for Tajikistan as you can also go via Kyrgyslzstan.

[jiyuanzh1994]

Hi all, after three years of border closure, Khorgos border crossing is finally open to the public again. Even though China has not officially start reissuing tourist visas, those traveling with business visas, Chinese residence permit, Kazakh-Chinese visiting family at the other side and a few curious Chinese tourists are already making this border crossing vibrant.

I traveled from Xinjiang, China to Kazakhstan on Feb. 17, 2023 through this border crossing and my experience was NOT so great. A LOT OF WAITING was involved and seems like none of the procedure is transparent (just like everything else in China :p)

We arrived in Yining City in Xinjiang, China on Feb. 15, 2023, stayed there for one day to have a break from the long travel day (yes, a flight from coastal cities in China to Urumqi in Xinjiang typically takes 4 to 5 hours, and we needed to make a connection and hop on a flight from Urumqi to Yining......). During the break day, we tried to secure a driver to drive us to Khorgos border the next day. The best way to find drivers willing to do this is at Ili Prefecture Coach Terminal (yi li zhou ke yun zhan, 伊犁州客运站 in Chinese). The coach terminal no longer has scheduled services to Khorgos but instead just have contract with a bunch of private marshrutka and outsource all the passenger going to these direction to those drivers waiting outside the coach terminal (well, using a Hyundai Elantra as a marshrutka is kinda...extra I guess...?). My tip would be just not even go in the terminal and yell "Khorgos" or "Kazakhstan" outside the coach terminal XD. We talked to one driver who offered us RMB 50/person, but since we are a party of 2 and wanted to both save time and make ourselves comfortable, we opted to pay a price for 4 people (50*4=200) to have the entire Hyundai Elantra all to ourselves the next day.

We started the ride from Yining City in Xinjiang right by 07:30 (UTC+8, Beijing time) and arrived at the international coach terminal (guo ji ke yun zhan, 国际客运站 in Chinese) at Khorgos (Chinese side) at around 09:00. It was still dark and there were already money changers coming to you asking if you want to change Chinese RMB into Kazakhstani Tenge (flat rate 1:60, a bit worse than what I see in Almaty. I also didn't know that Kazakhstan is already very cashless anyways.). There was a small makeshift store in the same building and we went in there just to stay warm. Surprisingly, they also serve breakfast! Only simple items like Chinese buns, hard boiled eggs, local savory milk tea and coffee (exactly something I need or I'll be like "Don't talk to me before I drink my coffee") were available but still, better than nothing.

At 09:30, the intl coach terminal opened. We got through the security with another Kazakh-Chinese guy from Xinjiang and went line up for our ticket. Getting a ticket is actually a two step procedure. You first go to the line on the left to have your passport number (for Chinese citizens, ID card number as well) written down. The staff will also take a photo of these documents, presumably to send the traveler's details to Chinese customs. After that, you join the line on the right to pay for a ticket (RMB 35 when I made the trip and the bus goes until the actual border line between China and Kazakhstan, so it goes literally less than a few kilometers, but seems like the situation now is different. You pay RMB 70 for a ride to Zharkent, Kazakhstan)

After purchasing the ticket, if you are not Chinese citizens who are from Xinjiang, you are free to get a plastic card which says "kou an tong xing zheng, 口岸通行证 (meaning border terminal pass)" and join the line and be the first ones to depart. This is when we had to left our new friend and go our own way. The first bus is usually only non-Chinese citizens (we saw Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh) as well as Chinese citizens from provinces other than Xinjiang who are not subject to the draconian control system in Xinjiang, another great evidence of how much restrictions Chinese govt is putting on its people in Xinjiang... The bus drove out at approximately 10:30 and soon stopped at the entrance of the border terminal. You bring all your bags down and proceed to the first security check, where that plastic card "border pass" is taken away. There will also be police checking your passport for the first of many times. Most ppl passed without any problem but one gentlemen's passport expired a few days ago and oops, had to be stopped there. My passport also brought some unwanted attention since it was issued in New York (by the Chinese consulate when I was living in the states). I asked firmly what the issue was, and the police guy just kinda shied away and let me through.

That all happened before we even entered the border terminal on the Chinese side. Once entering, it's just the regular customs, immigration and quarantine procedure, but we needed to fill in a customs health declaration e-form either with a wechat mini-program or a web link, generate a QR code, and present to the customs officer. There were three immigration officer checking my passport, but to my understanding, that was actually a training session for a junior officer... The other two officers were quizzing him hard with all the visas and stamps on my passport and was always like "Which country is this blue stamp from? How about the black one?", and I was asked not to reveal the answers at first XD. After passing through, we were told to wait until the bus clears the check and then re-board the bus for the remaining 1 km to the actual border XD.

The bus just stops in the middle of the road, where we see both the Chinese officers and the Kazakh officers standing side-by-side. That was the actual border line. We got off the bus, walked across the border, had passport checked by the Kazakh border guards and started walking to the border terminal on the Kazakh side. It was approximately a 500 m walk and the road condition was okay. Just that we were pretty much walking down the truck lane all the way to the border terminal.

In the border terminal, people who speaks Kazakh or Russian were the first ones to be called to clear immigration and customs, but a Russian lady (who speaks good Mandarin) was asked to help with translation. The Kazakh officers does not speak ANY English or Mandarin and they asked that poor Russian lady to translate for every single Chinese tourists from the same bus (there were about 10 to 12). After clearing customs, we had to wait in a holding area until EVERYONE on the same bus finished the formalities, then we were escorted out, walked another 500 m with passport being checked twice by soldiers, and then finally exited the iron gate outside of the Nur Joly port of entry area.

I've looked in advance for transportation options between Nur Joly port of entry to Almaty and the only feasible option is by marshrutka. I contacted a Kazakh-Chinese guy doing this kind of business and was offered 10,000 KZT per person but we did 40,000 for the entire car. I even discussed if I can just pay him in RMB, not KZT, to spare me from all the hecticness to exchange more currency on the first day of arrival. He agreed to accept QR code payment in RMB and he took 600 RMB, which was also in our favor. We left the port of entry area at 13:00 (UTC+6, Almaty time), stopped for late lunch in Zharkent and finally got to Almaty at around 17:30.

A few tips for non-Chinese citizens traveling this route:
1. Know that you're likely to spend all day on the way with a lot of meaningless wait.
2. Know that you don't have to wait with most of the passengers if you arrive early in the morning before 09:00.
3. You can't leave the customs area on your own. You have to wait until every single passenger on this bus to be cleared, which sometimes could take forever.
4. Hire a driver on both side and contact them in advance if you want to save time and are not traveling alone. 40,000 KZT is not a small number when you're paying all by yourself.
5. Don't underestimate Chinese QR code payment... if you live in China, maybe you can make use of this to pay someone who's willing to accept it and there may be surprises for you :p

[harleyhoffi]

Hi Guys, i am pretty new here. I am planning to go with the motorbike from Armenia to China this year. Is the Khorgos border crossing suitable for motorbikes? does anyone has experience? Thanks

[Baidjenkee]

We crossed the Khorgos border yesterday from Kazakhstan into China.
We slept in Zharkent, took a taxi to the border... yes you can not do that. You are ONLY allowed to cross with a vehicle.
So we went back to Zharkent and got dropped at the Zharkent bus station.
(On google maps, address: Ulitsa Zhibek Zholy 39, Zharkent, Kazakhstan)
There is a ticket office for minivans to the border 4500 Tenge. The bus leaves when full. Luckily for us it wasn't long. The trip takes 45 minutes to an hour.
First the minivan will stop at the Kazakh border post, you take your luggage and go through customs and passport control to check out of Kazakhstan. As Foreigners we were taken into a booth for questioning, but all was fine.
Then you get back on your minibus and cross the border line and stop at the Chinese border post. You take your luggage and go through customs and passport control. This one took longer, more questionning and one of us had their whole luggage and mobile phone opened, analysed and questioned. About 40 minutes of it. Then it was all fine and we got our passports back.
Then you exit. There are taxis outside offering various rides. We went to Yining - 300 RMB, about 1.5 hours.
On the way to yining there was another checkpoint where we had to get out of the car with passports, but it was quick.

All in all the border crossing is doable, but you need a lot of time and patience.

[wnstnbchr]

Thank you very much for your account, that is really helpful. Are there trains running from Yining to Urumqi? i.e. how did you continue your journey?

[Cycle.sabbatical]

We crossed from Kazakhstan at Nur Zholy to Khorgas China on August 4th. We’ve been traveling by bicycle and due to other reports we thought it best to take our bicycles by bus across the border. It really appears there is no way you could walk or bike across the border with the security and infrastructure on the kazakh side headed into China. The good news is that large size mountain bikes with 29” tire fit upright in the undercarriage of the bus that departs Zharkent We were able to strap the bikes to supporting structures in the cargo area.
The tickets for the bus were 4000tenge/per person. We paid the driver another 3000tenge to make sure that there was space reserved for the bikes - we had to unload/reload the bikes during the crossing first at the Kazakh exit and then unload again at the Chinese entry. Everyone else on the bus also has a ton of luggage so coming early to get the spots for the bikes was important.
Chinese customs was relatively straight forward. We had to unload all the bags off the bikes 2x to go through x-Ray machines. They were confused by our lack of a Chinese phone number on entry forms and had us wait for awhile and then pull one of us aside for review of phone content and questioning on planned route and journey. We were honest about our plan to cycle to the Mongolian border and we didn’t need to show proof of departure from China. The tone of conversation and questioning was all very cordial and the use of their language translation devices made talking pretty seamless!

[Important Note]
Once across the border (yay!!) cash and credit cards are not widely accepted. We had downloaded Alipay in advance anticipating this, but found out that you need Wi-Fi to pay and this only works with a Chinese SIM. There is literally no way to access the internet without a Chinese SIM and in Xinjiang foreigner are unable to purchase these SIMs. I’m not sure where you can buy a Chinese SIM in advance, other regions of China do sell them to foreigners without issue if you are coming from somewhere else, but considering there doesn’t appear to be ATMs and things are pretty cashless it would be hard to get around without AliPay or WeChat Wallet.