Train travel in China
In four years I’ve traveled in China by train at least for 165 hours. I’ve tried soft sleeper, hard sleeper, standing ticket changed to hard seat and comfortable soft seat in a bullet train. I’ve traveled alone, with my boyfriend, with a friend and with twenty classmates. So what is train travel in China actually like?
Buying tickets
The first hurdle will be buying the tickets and it’s best to buy them in advance if you want to avoid waiting at the railway station for hours (days) or settle for a standing ticket. Especially during holidays, Chinese New Year being the worst, you have to buy the tickets in advance.
According to the official website, tickets for Chinese New Year 2014 will be on sale on 28th December (for 16th January’s tickets). According to my knowledge you can only buy tickets maximum of 18 or 20 days before the trip.
You can buy tickets at railway stations, from ticket sellers or online if your travel companion has a Chinese ID card. Many hotels and hostels also have a ticket service that will help you buy the tickets you need with a small service fee. You will need your foreign passport to buy the tickets as the passport number will be printed on the ticket.
Timetables and prices can be found easily in English at Travel China Guide.
Photo by Ken Marshall
Boarding the train
In big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou the railway stations can look like airports. When you get to the station, first check the big screen for your train number and which waiting room you should go. It can be bit hard to figure out the screen if you can’t read Chinese, but don’t worry, just ask any worker by showing your ticket to them and they will point you to the right direction.
I always arrive too early at the railway station, but I think it’s better to be early than late! Arrive at least half an hour before the train leaves and wait for your turn at the waiting room. On the screens you can see your train number again and possibly how long until it departs. The screen will also show you when it’s the time to board the train and an announcement is also made through the loudspeakers in Chinese.
If you don’t understand Chinese, keep an eye on the screen and ask the workers. Every time it’s time to board a train (it might be yours or some other train) massive amount of people will stand up and rush to the gates. If you are unsure, always ask the staff.
Only when the train arrives will they open the gate and let you to the platform. It’s pretty much impossible to wander to a wrong platform. Check the correct car number on your ticket and head to the right door. The train staff will check your ticket before you board so you can’t accidentally board the wrong train.
Once you have found your seat or your berth, hold tight on your ticket. The tickets might be checked again when you get off the train or during the journey.
If you have a berth (hard or soft sleeper) the staff will change your ticket to a plastic card (picture above) for the time of the train ride. Before you arrive to your destination, the staff will wake you up if necessary and give back your paper ticket.
Different seats and berths
In general there are five types of tickets from the most to the least comfortable: soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and a standing ticket.
The soft sleeper isn’t really that soft, but it’s a cabin with four beds and a door that can be closed. This is ideal if you are traveling with friends in a group of four as you can have your own privacy. Soft sleeper tickets are the most expensive ones.
Hard sleeper ticket is the one I’ve traveled the most with (picture above). It has six beds in one slot and it’s open to the aisle. The price is cheaper the higher you go, but it can be bit uncomfortable on the top berth. I personally prefer the lower berth, but the middle one is ok too. The lights will be closed at 10pm and opened at 7pm if I remember correctly.
Hard sleeper is great alone, with friends or with 20+ classmates as we did last August. It’s easy to make friends on a train, especially if you look foreign, people will come and talk to you if you can find a common language. But you can also concentrate on reading your book too if you want to.
Keep your valuables on your bed when you sleep, but put your luggage under the lower berth or on to the luggage rack above the aisle. As a foreign woman traveling alone in 2010, there was always at least one gentleman helping me with my backpack.
Soft seat is a normal common and quite comfy seat great for a few hours train trip. Bullet trains only have soft seats which reminds me of seats in Finnish trains.
Hard seat on the other hand is a wooden bench where you sit with two other travelers on one bench. It’s like sitting in a metro for hours and hours. I had the opportunity to try it out once in 2010 when I was coming back to Guangzhou from Shanghai. I bought the ticket the same morning I was coming back, a big mistake, and got a standing ticket! Yes, that’s right, no seat available, but I could at least board the train.
After sitting on my luggage for 15 minutes, one Chinese guy with passable English offered his seat to me. He had paid more for his ticket of course, but he was willing to help a foreign girl in need. I refused first, but he insisted on giving his seat to me. He ended up sleeping on the floor for the 15 hours.
The lights may stay on the whole journey and as the food cart comes and goes, everyone on the floor has to stand up once a hour or so.
As I wrote, standing ticket allows you to board the train and find a spot in the hard seat car. It’s up to you if you choose to stand near the toilets or lay on the floor.
Toilets in a train
Soft sleeper cars have western toilet on one end and Chinese squat toilet on the other end of the car. Other cars have only squat toilets, which is actually a good things as you don’t have to touch anything.
It’s entirely up to your luck how clean the toilets will be after hours or a day of train traveling. Bring your own toilet paper and wet towels.
There is a separate area for washing your hands, face and brushing your teeth. It will be crowded in the morning so you might want to get up early so you don’t have to queue up.
Snacks, food cart and the dining car
I have never eaten in a dining car on a Chinese train, but there is one available for the longer journeys. You can also buy snacks or even dishes from the food cart that comes and goes at least every hour. Prices are of course more expensive then normal shops, but still tolerable.
Best thing would be to buy your own snacks before you board the train. Bigger railway stations have shops and restaurants where you can buy food to take away and eat in the train. Remember to buy enough water as well and bring a thermos if you want to drink tea. Hot water is available in every car.
If it’s a long journey, you might want to consider bringing some snacks you can share with other friendly passengers.
Things to remember
* Charge your mobile phone and other gadgets before the trip. Buying a portable mobile charger is also a good idea as in most cases you can’t charge in the train.
* Bring you own toilet paper and wet towels for basic hygiene. Also bring a small hand towel for washing your face in the morning.
* Put your valuables in a small bag you can carry around with you even when you go to the toilet. This is important especially when you travel alone and can’t have anyone to watch your stuff. Your bigger luggage should be safe under the lower berth or on top of the luggage rack, but don’t leave anything valuable inside it.
* When you get off the train and walk out of the station, always find the official taxis or use bus or metro. There will be numerous black taxi drivers shouting at you and trying to find a customer, but those are always much more expensive than the real taxis.
So here we are, my all 165 hours of wisdom in one blog post! I will continue to update this post according to your comments and my future adventures in Chinese trains.
Have you traveled in a train in China? Please share your exprience in the comments!
21 Comments
Kaiser
跟中国的高铁系统相比,美国的高铁系统相当落后。出于好奇,跟中国的高铁系统相比,芬兰的高铁系统怎么样?听说芬兰的芬俄高铁线极其好。
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 11th, 2013 at 11:26 am
很多芬兰人对芬兰铁路不满意,冬天因为下大雪,火车走不了,常常迟到。但是跟别的国家的铁路对比的话,可能我们的铁路也没那么差吧。
[Reply]
Kaiser Reply:
December 11th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
经济发达的国家之中,美国的铁路系统是最落后的之一。我国甚至一条高速铁路也没有。由于美国人平常非常喜欢高科技,因此我总不太了解为何我国的人民都那么不喜欢高速铁路。 神秘极了。 中国的铁路系统比美国的好得多。我想你和你男朋友去芬兰的时候你们应该乘芬俄高铁线去俄国旅行,好玩!
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 11th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
哈哈,我男朋友可能不愿意!
[Reply]
Kaiser Reply:
December 17th, 2013 at 11:39 am
出于好奇他为何或许不愿意?
[Reply]
Kelvin Lai Reply:
February 22nd, 2014 at 11:25 pm
如果美国大力建设高铁系统,就会触动汽车厂商以及飞机厂商的利益,因此不会轻易获得批准。另外高铁沿线的环保和拆迁将会非常艰巨,这点跟中国的国情不一样。
[Reply]
Leonard
In my experience, if you are staying at a decent hotel, they can send someone to buy a train ticket for you, for a nominal fee. They will need to make a copy of your passport to bring to the ticket booth.
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 11th, 2013 at 11:23 am
Excellent point Leonard! I’ve used that service my self, but completely forget. I will add it now.
[Reply]
Fabi Wijnschenk
Wonderful post Sara! I never been in Guangzhou by train, but I do hear they are very good. I traveled around China in the beginning of 2008, in the old trains. From Ningbo (where I was working) to Shanghai, there picked my friend and we went by train to Beijing, then Beijing-Xian, Xian-Chengdu, Chengdu-Kunming and finally 37 hours of hard bed from Kunming to Hangzhou :) We spent chinese new year in the trip Xian-Chengdu (13 hours), people were very kind with us. The new fast trains are very nice, I traveled many times from Ningbo to Xiamen, and since we move to Xiamen I have to say sometimes the plane tickets are cheapers, so we prefer the plane. But everyone need to experience the “train travel in China”.
I have to say, I do prefer the top bed in the train, because sleeping in the bottom one I woke up each time people used my bed as stair or just sat (without ask me) to have breakfast in the morning :)
Kind regards,
Fabiana
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 11th, 2013 at 5:03 pm
So great to hear you liked the post!
I agree, traveling by train in China totally is an experience everyone should have at least once in a lifetime. Great way to practise some spoken Chinese as well.
I’ve actually slept quite well on all of them, from top to bottom. I also noticed that not so many Chinese people dare to sit on my lower berth, perhaps because I’m a foreigner?
[Reply]
Nommoc
Good post.
I liked the photos a lot.
More photos with every post please… ; )
After all a photo is worth a thousand words.
PS: I’ve yet to take on the long-distance trains of China. However I do have the goal of doing so…
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 12th, 2013 at 11:01 am
When you do take the long-distance train, remember to share with us :)
I’ll try to take some new photos in the near future! Haven’t been out photographing that much lately, something that should change.
[Reply]
Nommoc Reply:
December 12th, 2013 at 10:53 pm
For sure!
It is a goal of mine as well… talk less, listen more. Write less, photo more. : )
[Reply]
chinaelevatorstories
Good introduction!
I prefer the middle beds (and the one of the two opposite beds that is closer to the front). The top one is so high it makes me feel unsafe, the bottom one might have people sitting on it all day long. I have taken quite a few trains where the trains used the brakes very often, very suddenly and with a lot of force in a 10 minute rhythm, and sleeping on the bed closer to the bottom of the train would give me the feeling that I could fall down anytime. I’m not a good sleeper, especially if I’m on a train, but I still prefer train travel to taking the plane.
Also, I’ve been on quite a few trains that didn’t come with a dining car. But there’s always a food cart. Since there’s hot water on every train, buying instant noodles and “cooking” them on the train is something I can highly recommend, especially if you’re on a train for longer than just two or three hours.
[Reply]
Sara Jaaksola Reply:
December 12th, 2013 at 11:06 am
Great to have you sharing your experiences!
Instant noodles aren’t my favorite thing, but for a long train trip they can be your saviour. Light, cheap and fills your stomach.
[Reply]
chinaelevatorstories Reply:
December 12th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Exactly! I usually don’t eat instant noodles, but for train travels they are just oh so convenient.
[Reply]
Kaiser
出于好奇你为什么不乘西伯利亚大铁路回美丽的芬兰?
[Reply]
Pingback:
Sara Jaaksola
Hi Annu, your blog seems very interesting, have to take a better look!
[Reply]
Lee J
Wrong,idiotic bx.
While I don’t like China much. You don’t have to be stupid and biased against all Chinese.
sarajaaksola(dot)com/5-reasons-to-hate-china/
1. Some, yes. But it’s not dirty or not. Any can be OK. And there’s always exception.
2. Not all are, those behaviors are also not disgusx or not. And doing such things is OK sometimes, especially in a slum or bad human infested place. China is like a slum.
3. Meh, not. No need to use your narrow-minded Finnish townish attitude to judge that.
4. Most Chinese people wouldn’t eat those weird foods. And dude you hunt pilot whales every year, who are very sentient creatures. Do you have shame before judging a bunch of poor people eating some weird foods? And rice is like bread in Europe, also many Asians like warm things for their stomach. It can be just regarded as superior than your way of eating, idiots. You and your Swedish neighbor enjoy Surströmming too? Gross.
5. No, you are stupid. You are also unimaginative and lack in being sentient and perceptive. I agree that many Chinese are stupid sht. But you can’t even understand that these Chinese just don’t want to move to the windows seats because they don’t want to. It’s more distance to move and many of them get numb about helping the strangers because there are so many of them. Your perception is so bad, silly bitcx. Keeping the A/C on with doors open is also none of your business. It’s maybe just your foul odor begging for a more ventilated environment. And people can do whatever they want with the A/C and it can all be OK and it’s not you to judge. No reasons to hate that. Generalizing bx. just you are stupid and deserve hate.
Just you can’t solve any problems that requires creative thinking. You think the examples you said is about creativity? Unimaginative idiotic sht. Many Chinese can create anyx no matter what, just you are uncreative stupid sht and can’t think nothing. Autistic idiot who came to China then lost the best of her here. Stupid country bumpkins.
No such thing as common q or not, can ask any nmw.
[Reply]
Pingback: