What are Chinese trains like?

Chinese trains link virtually all main cities and towns in China, and are a safe, comfortable and civilised way to travel, even for families or women travelling alone. They have 4 classes: soft seat, soft sleeper, hard seat, hard sleeper. Short distance daytime trains normally only have hard class seats, though some inter-city trains also have soft class seats.

Soft sleepers consist of comfortable 4-berth compartments with full bedding provided. Hard sleepers consist of bunks in open-plan dormitory cars, usually arranged in bays of 6 (upper, middle and lower) on one side of the aisle, with pairs of seats on the other side of the aisle for daytime use. Soft sleeper is recommended for most visitors to China, but budget travellers often use hard class, which is quite acceptable (and the bunks are padded, not 'hard'!). A few important trains on the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Hong Kong, Beijing-Xian and some other key routes have deluxe soft sleepers with 2-berth compartments with private toilets as well as the normal 4-berth soft class. Most long-distance trains have a restaurant car serving full meals. The photographs below show modern sleepers and a restaurant car on a typical 'T' or 'K' category express between major cities. The best 'Z' category trains are even more modern, see the pictures further down this page. Chinese trains generally have both western & 'squat' toilets, but take your own supply of toilet paper.

Always arrive at the station in plenty of time before the departure of your train. In major cities, especially Beijing, stations can be large and busy, and it may take a while to find your train. In some cases there are security checks (including airline-style luggage checks) to go through before boarding.

Boarding trains in Beijing...

There are two major stations in Beijing, Beijing Main (metro Bejingzhan) and Beijing West (also called Beijing Xi or Xizhan, metro Junshibowuguan). Trans-Siberian trains to Moscow & Ulan Bator use Beijing Main, as do trains to Shanghai. The direct train to Hong Kong and trains to Xian, Guangzhou & Tibet all use Beijing's newer West station.

• Both Beijing stations are large and busy, and some people find them confusing. So arrive in plenty of time for your train!

• When you reach the station, you must first go through airport-style security controls into the departure area.

• For soft sleeper travel, you must then find the appropriate waiting lounge for your train. There are a number of different waiting lounges, and the electronic message boards show which is the right one for each specific train. Tickets are checked on entering the lounge, so you can be sure you are in the right place.

• Inside the lounge, the electronic message boards show the trains departing from that lounge, for the next 24 hours. Trains are usually allocated between lounges so there is ½ hour or more between each departure from that lounge.

• Most trains are shown as 'on time', but the most immediate departures are shown as 'waiting'. Once a train is ready for boarding (normally about 30 minutes before departure) it is shown as 'check in', meaning you can proceed through ticket control to the platform. About 5 minutes before departure the barrier is closed and the train is shown as 'check out'.