Almaty

By bus

Sleeper buses leave from Urumqi at 6pm every day of the week except Saturday and take approximately 24 hours to arrive in Almaty November 2008: only buses on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7pm. Tickets for a lower bed are Y420, upper beds are Y400, and a berth in the back bed of the bus is Y380. Buses depart from the international branch of the Nianzigou Bus Station 碾子沟客运站, which is located about 50 meters to the left of the main Nianzigou station if facing the front of the station on the other side of the Wenshabao 温莎堡 building. Beware that the crossing at Korgas 霍尔果斯 closes on Chinese national holidays including the first week of October for National Day.

Buses also leave from Yining and it takes about 10 hours to go to Almaty. They cost USD 30 or Y150. These buses leave two or three times in a week, ask the busdrives in Yining when they will go. You could also take a bus to Korgas from Yining Y30 - Y38 and go to Kazakhstan by foot from Korgas. After being on the other side of the border you could take a taxi which will cost about 3000 Tenge to go to Almaty. The trip from Korgas to Almaty is about 4 to 6 hours. The city of Tacheng city north of Korgas and north of Yining also has buses that run several times a week to Almaty and back.

OVIR

Enter the side door through the blue porch and go to window No. 3. You need: photocopies of your passport photo-page and your Kazakh visa as well as your accommodation's address Aug 2010. As of May 2010, you can drop off your passport copies not accepted, nor letters from embassies confirming that they are holding your passportwith the aforementioned documents in the morning, and they will ask you to return later in the day to pick it up. If you do not register within 5 daysbeware this duration starts from the day you landed in first kazak airport on your arrival till you take off on your departure from the final kazak airport, this is important considering that the cities are not well connected by international flights on daily basis due to which you spend in stopovers at domestic airports, the penalty fee is $100, otherwise you will prevented from leaving the country.

By train

There are two railway stations, Almaty-1 and Almaty-2. Almaty-2 is located in the city centre, Almaty-1 is cca 4 km from the centre. Most trains end at Almaty-2, but some lower-class trains end at Almaty-1.