Cross-border tourism satisfaction remains a critical concern for destination managers, particularly in emerging travel corridors such as China–Mongolia, where limited empirical evidence exists on the mechanisms linking service and infrastructure factors to tourist experiences. Grounded in Expectation–Confirmation Theory (ECT), this study examines the effects of tourism service quality (TSQ), destination infrastructure quality (DIQ), and price fairness perception (PFP) on Chinese tourists’ satisfaction (CTS), with perceived destination value (PDV) as a mediator and cross-border tourism cooperation effectiveness (CTCE) as a moderator. A total of 400 valid responses were collected from Chinese outbound tourists who had visited Mongolia in the past twelve months. Data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (SEM-PLS) in SmartPLS to assess measurement reliability, validity, and structural relationships. Results indicate that TSQ significantly influences PDV (H1: O = 0.518, T = 6.084, p < 0.001), DIQ positively affects PDV (H2: O = 0.199, T = 2.025, p = 0.043), and PFP positively impacts PDV (H3: O = 0.270, T = 4.908, p < 0.001). PDV demonstrates a mediating effect on the relationships between TSQ and CTS (H9: competitive partial mediation, T = 3.027, p = 0.002), DIQ and CTS (H10: full mediation, T = 1.765, p = 0.078), and PFP and CTS (H11: competitive partial mediation, T = 2.901, p = 0.004). Direct effects on CTS were significant for TSQ (H5: T = 3.418, p = 0.001) and PFP (H7: T = 2.500, p = 0.012), but not for DIQ (H6: T = 1.049, p = 0.294), while CTCE did not significantly moderate the PDV–CTS relationship (H8: T = 0.145, p = 0.885). These findings underscore the pivotal role of perceived destination value as a psychological conduit translating service quality, infrastructure, and pricing into satisfaction, offering theoretical advancement of ECT in cross-border tourism contexts. Practically, the study guides destination managers to prioritise service quality and price fairness to enhance tourist satisfaction and informs strategies for improving experiential outcomes in international travel corridors..