Overland route from the Caucasus to Mongolia without entering Russia?

Question

I plan to base myself in the Replubic of Georgia for a while and I'm thinking of a trip from there to Mongolia but I have some restrictions:

• No flying (overland is more of an adventure)
• I can't enter Russia (I can't get a Russian visa outside my home country)

So I can get to Azerbaijan and cross the Caspian or into Iran without too much trouble as far as I know. But then things get tricky. Turkmenistan is probably out. Kazakhstan looks like the obvious answer but there's about 50km between where Kazakhstan ends and Mongolia begins with just a Russia-China border.

So are there ways to travel this section? Roads? Border crossings? And if not which other overland route from the Caucasus to Mongolia without Russia is more possible?

Answer 1

• From Tbilisi to Baku you can go via train #38/37. It goes every day, so there is no problem with that.
• From Baku you can get to Aktau (Kazakhstan) via ferry. People who used this ferry are saying it has no stable schedule, so you can contact ferry station by phone:

(99412) 493-19-63
(99412) 498-10-13

• Also you can go to Türkmenbaşy (Turkmenistan), if you want - it much closer, but I can't find info about transit visa for Turkmenistan.
• From Aktau you can get to Almaty by train #377.
• From there you can pass to one of the main border crossing points Dostyk by train #114 (and even to Ürümqi, China by train #014, since in Almaty there is a Chinese embassy).
• Ürümqi is a large rail point in North China, but the only two points to cross the China-Mongolia border is Zamyn-Üüd and Erenhot, so you need get a train to one of these points.