We had decided to embark in Irkutsk, where the also-famous Trans-Siberian Railroad stops en route from Moscow to Vladivostok, connecting to the Trans-Mongolian that runs south toward Ulaanbaatar.
Promoters say it is well situated for shipping raw materials from China and the Russian Far East to the rest of Asia, or Asian-made goods across the Trans-Siberian railroad to Europe.
The other was headquartered in a town called Chegdomyn, straddling a rail spur that ran a few hundred miles north from the major city of Khabarovsk, one of the main stops on the Trans-Siberian railroad.