China Railway K3/4

When this train was first operated in the 1960s, most of the passengers were government officials, with there being police guarding it even in the depot, earning it the nickname "The Mystery Train of the East". During the Sino-Soviet split in the 1980s, as little as 20 passengers took the K3/4 train, although it continued to operate.^[4]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the train became mostly filled with businessmen and traders carrying their goods, which when combined with lack of policing at the time, caused a series of robberies now known as the Trans-Siberian train robberies [zh].^[5]

In 2000, China initiated its third campaign to increase the speed of its railways, the K3/4 train was sped up and renumbered from 3/4 to K3/4.^[6] After the 2000s, the train became mostly used by tourists instead, becoming a tourist train.^[4]

In 2020, this train service has suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic through the three countries.^[7]

During 25 February and 11 March, 2025, a 12-carriage K3/4 started trial run without any passengers, to prepare for a future operation resumption.^[8] In this trial, coaches are replaced by International 25G.

The train is mostly made up of China Railway train cars, painted in green as was common in communist countries of the time. There is no air conditioning in the train, as it uses coal for heating, requiring on average 4-5 tons of coal for each staff member on the train.^[9]

As China uses 1435mm standard gauge rail track, while Russia and Mongolia use 1520 mm broad gauge track, there is a break of gauge at the Chinese-Mongolian border, where the train stops for around three hours at Erenhot, where passengers first go through Chinese immigration procedures, then the entire train is lifted up, then the train's bogies are swapped out for new bogies of the corresponding gauge. Passengers remain in the train while this procedure is conducted.^[9]

The train is composed of thirteen carriages in China, with nine international carriages, composed of five hard sleepers, three luxury [zh] soft sleepers and a baggage car, as well as three domestic hard sleeper carriages and a domestic restaurant car. Other domestic restaurant cars and sleeper carriages are also attached upon entering Mongolia and Russia.

• There is no time difference between China and Mongolia. The time difference between Moscow and China/Mongolia is five hours.^{[note 1]}
• Names in Russian and Mongolian are romanized according to Wikipedia:Romanization of Russian and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mongolian).

More information K3/003/003З, Station ...

K3/003/003З				Station	004З/004/K4
Train	Day	Arr.	Dep.		Arr.	Dep.	Day	Train
K3	Day 1 (Wed)	—	07:27	Beijing	14:35	—	Day 7 (Mon)	K4	‹ The template below (Interlanguage link info) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›
		10:46	10:55	Zhangjiakou	11:01	11:13
		15:27	15:43	Jiningnan	06:37	06:55
		18:03	18:05	Zhurihe [zh]	04:07	04:09
K3/003		20:18	00:59	Erlian [zh]	21:00	02:00	Day 6 (Sun)	004/K4
↑ China (CST) / Mongolia (ULAT) ↓
003	Day 2 (Thu)	01:25	02:40	Zamyn-Üüd [ru]	18:50	20:35	Day 6 (Sun)	004
		06:15	06:50	Sainshand [uk]	14:49	15:20
		10:13	10:30	Choir [uk]	11:22	11:37
		14:35	15:22	Ulaanbaatar	06:50	07:30
		17:59	18:14	Züünkharaa [uk]	03:40	03:55
		19:54	20:24	Darkhan I [uk]	01:41	01:54
003/003З		21:50	23:29	Sükhbaatar [ru]	22:29	00:14	Day 5 (Sat)	004З/004
↑ Mongolia (ULAT) / Russia (MSK) ↓
003З	Day 2 (Thu)	19:14	21:04	Naushki [ru]	14:57	16:47	Day 5 (Sat)	004З
		21:52	22:00	Dzhida [ru]	14:11	14:12
		22:30	22:36	Selenduma [ru]	↑	↑
	Day 3 (Fri)	01:34	01:49	Medvedchikovo [ru]	↑	↑
		02:28	03:13	Ulan-Ude	09:58	10:43
		08:04	08:09	Slyudyanka I [ru]	05:33	05:35
		10:13	10:47	Irkutsk–Passazhirsky	02:43	03:06
		11:01	11:03	Irkutsk–Sortirovochny [ru]	02:27	02:29
		11:40	11:42	Angarsk [ru]	01:53	01:55
		12:06	12:08	Usolye-Sibirskoye [ru]	01:28	01:30
		13:00	13:02	Cheremkhovo	00:37	00:39
		14:48	15:10	Zima [ru]	22:31	22:53	Day 4 (Fri)
		17:03	17:05	Tulun [ru]	20:34	20:36
		18:42	18:55	Nizhneudinsk [ru]	18:45	18:58
		21:28	21:30	Tayshet	16:10	16:12
		23:29	23:51	Ilanskaya	13:51	14:13
	Day 4 (Sat)	00:21	00:23	Kansk–Yeniseysky [ru]	13:18	13:20
		03:58	04:19	Krasnoyarsk	09:17	09:38
		07:07	07:09	Achinsk I [ru]	06:23	06:25
		08:08	08:09	Bogotol [ru]	05:26	05:27
		09:53	10:27	Mariinsk [ru]	03:12	03:46
		12:23	12:25	Tayga [ru]	01:00	01:03
		13:26	13:28	Yurga I [ru]	23:57	23:59	Day 3 (Thu)
		15:39	15:57	Novosibirsk	21:28	21:46
		19:18	19:48	Barabinsk [ru]	17:46	18:16
		23:29	23:45	Omsk–Passazhirsky	13:44	14:00
	Day 5 (Sun)	02:50	03:05	Ishim [ru]	10:19	10:34
		06:34	06:55	Tyumen	06:15	06:35
		11:36	12:04	Yekaterinburg–Passazhirsky	01:12	01:40
		17:28	17:48	Perm II	19:42	20:02	Day 2 (Wed)
		21:21	21:47	Balezino [ru]	15:52	16:18
	Day 6 (Mon)	01:00	01:15	Kirov	11:55	12:10
		05:44	05:46	Semyonov	06:39	06:41
		06:48	07:00	Nizhny Novgorod	05:37	05:49
		10:36	11:06	Vladimir [ru]	02:26	02:52
		13:58	—	Moscow–Yaroslavsky	—	23:45	Day 1 (Tue)

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The 2018 Chinese crime television series Operation Moscow [zh] and the film Moscow Mission and other, older films were based on the Trans-Siberian train robberies that happened on this train in the early 1990s.

The 2020 Chinese comedy film Lost in Russia portrays the protagonist and his mother taking the K3/4 train to Moscow.

The train is priced using Chinese yuan when sold in China, although ticket scalpers may resell the train tickets at much higher prices. Prices to major stations from Beijing:^[2]