China train information & fares

China train China has the busiest railway network in the world. According Wikipedia, China has 24% of all global railway traffic. The Chinese network is covering a total length of 78,000 kilometres. Only the USA and Russia have larger networks.
train ticketsMost hotels can book tickets for you: train, airline, city tours or shows. The hotel will get some commission for this service. But because the train fares are low, it will not be that much money. If you go to the train station yourself you will have the lowest fare but it is time-consuming. In the largest train stations they have a special ticket window for foreigners. Buying tickets online through the internet is another option but those online offices will also charge you a fee for their work.Do not throw your train ticket away after boarding the train: you have to show it when you exit the train station.
train reservationsIt is possible to make train reservations in China 5 till 20 days in advance. If you book your train tickets a few days days before you leave it should be okay. Exceptions are Chinese holidays and special events like the Olympic Games. In those cases make a reservation as soon as possible.
train classesThere are 4 different classes in the Chinese trains:- hard seat: crowded; 110 seats in carriage- soft seat: good choice for short distances- hard sleeper: 2x3 beds; 66 beds in carriage- soft sleeper: 2x2 bedsThe softsleeper has 4 beds in a closed compartment. Two beds are used as couch in the day: the other two are folding beds. The hardsleeper is not closed and you will have direct contact with all the other 64 passengers in the carriage.Sheets, pillows and blankets will be provided.Softsleeper compartment in train Shanghai-Guilin
food & drinksIn all trains is a dining car. Often it is crowded and customers eat fast. Best is to take some food and vegetables with you. Small foam boxes with a basic hot meal (rice/noodles; see photo above) are sold in the train. Hot water is free available. Don't forget either your own cup/tea/coffee/noodles/fork/spoon/chopsticks and toiletpaper.
train Beijing <-> ShanghaiThere are 10 trains daily between Beijing and Shanghai. Distance is 1460km. Fastest and most expensive is the new D31 (high speed)train. It departs 11.00 in Beijing and arrives 10 hours later in Shanghai at 21.00. In 2013 the travel time of this train will be reduced from 10 till only 5 hours.The other trains depart in the evening in Beijing between 19.30 - 20.30 and arrive between 7.00-9.20 in Shanghai. Comfortable trains are the Z-trains. Fare is ?00 for a softsleeper bed.The T-trains have Deluxe Softsleeper 2-person rooms with private toilet for ?00 per person. Cheapest ticket is the hardseat in the 1461-train with a journey of 23 hours.
train Hong Kong - Beijing, Guangzhou & ShanghaiHung Hom Station (Kowloon Station) has trains to the main cities in China. There are 3 through train routes:- the Beijing line- the Shanghai line- the Guangdong lineThe T97/T98 trains to Beijing and Shanghai have Deluxe Softsleeper 2person rooms with private toilet. Departure Hong Kong Hung Hom: 15.16, arrival in Beijing West Station 24 hours later at 15.41. Departure Beijing West: 12.00, arrival in Hong Kong Hung Hom later at 13.05 (25 hours journey).Train tickets must be booked well in advance because the train route Beijing - Hong Kong is a very popular one. The through trains operate on alternate days (not daily).Fares Hong Kong - Beijing: HKD1191 (about USD153) Deluxe Soft Sleeper, HKD934 SoftSleeper, HKD574-601 HardSleeper.Fares Hong Kong - Shanghai: HKD1039 Deluxe Soft Sleeper, HKD825 SoftSleeper, HKD530-508 HardSleeper.Tickets for the Guangdong line and Airport Express can be bought online: www.mtr.com.hk/eng/oticketing/intro.html
ChildrenChildren in mainland China under 1.10m travel free, children between 1.10-1.40 pay half fare and children over 1.40m pay the full fare.In Hong Kong are different rules. Child tickets in Hong Kong are for children aged 5 to 9 only. Children above 10 years old must buy adult tickets. Children under 5 years old and accompanied by an adult with a valid ticket may travel for free but will not have their own seat or sleeper.

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'.

How to buy tickets at the station

How to buy tickets at the station

• It's easy to buy tickets yourself at the station, but remember to take your passport with you.

• In big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai you should look for the special ticket window for foreigners.

• Reservations for the best Z-category express trains open 10-20 days before departure, but reservations for other trains only open 5-10 days before departure. You cannot buy tickets before reservations open. If the train you want starts its journey somewhere else and calls at your boarding station already well into its journey, tickets may only be available 2 days before departure. The exact rules vary by city and by train.

• Chinese Railways don't have a central reservation system, only local computer reservation systems based in each city that aren't linked to each other. So a station can generally only sell you a ticket for a journey starting at that station, not for journeys starting elsewhere. For example, the ticket office at Shanghai can sell you a Shanghai-Beijing ticket but cannot sell you a Beijing-Xian ticket. However, at major cities you can sometimes buy a return ticket for key routes - for example, in Beijing you can buy a ticket from Beijing to Shanghai and also from Shanghai back to Beijing. But in most cases, you'll need to book your return journey when you get to your destination.

• Tickets are best booked at least 2-3 days in advance, apart from peak periods (the Spring Festival, May Day 1st May, National Day 1st October) when they should be booked as soon as reservations open.

• In Beijing, you can buy tickets at Beijing Main station (metro Bejingzhan), or Beijing West station (called Beijing Xi or Xizhan, metro Junshibowuguan sometimes called 'Military Museum'). At Beijing Main station, the ticketing office for foreigners is on the north west corner of the 1st floor, accessed via the soft seat waiting room. It is open 05:30-07:30, 08:00-18:30, 19:00-23:00. Only domestic Chinese tickets are sold, not international tickets. At Beijing West station, ticket window 1 in the main hall is marked 'English speaking', open 24 hours. Service here is reported as 'fluent & efficient'. Alternatively, you can buy train tickets at BTG Travel & Tours, on Fwai Dajie between the New Otani and Gloria Plaza Hotels, open 08:00-20:00. To buy Trans-Siberian tickets from Beijing to Ulan Bator or Moscow, see the Trans-Siberian page. To buy tickets from Beijing to Hanoi, see the Vietnam page.

• In Shanghai, the English speaking ticket window at the main station is window 43.

How to buy tickets from outside China

If you want to book a Chinese train in advance from outside China, you can do this with several agencies, including www.chinatripadvisor.com, www.chinatrainticket.net or www.china-train-ticket.com.

2. Ask your hotel...

Alternatively, your hotel may be able to arrange tickets if you book accommodation with them, and this may be the cheapest way to arrange tickets in advance. Remember that reservations for the best Z-category express trains open 20 days in advance, but for most other trains bookings only open 5-10 days before departure. Even an agency cannot positively confirm your booking before reservations open and they buy your ticket!

Shanghai Railway Bureau: 140 billion RMB investment in railway construction

Shanghai Railway Bureau: 140 billion RMB investment in railway construction
In line with the spirit of expanding domestic demand and promoting the economics growth, the Shanghai Railway Administration decided to invest more than 140 billion RMB for railway construction before 2012, which is to say they need to invest one hundred million per day. In this context, a large-scale electronic information display which will cover 300 square meters was built by the Shanghai Railway Station.
It is reported that the display construction began in October this year, and it will be put into use in Spring Festival in 2009; will be structured as a national structure of the commercial Internet information network in early 2009 which makes Shanghai Railway Station to be the center and 12 other around railway stations as basic points.
In two or three years later, the Yangtze River Delta fast transport network, such as Shanghai-Nanjing, Hangzhou-Ningbo and Nanjing-Hangzhou, will have a new beginning.

Reported by Yongqiang Zhen on 26 November 2008 from www.chinatrainticket.net

A new railway will be built in western China

China says it will spend about $17.6 billion for a second rail link to northwestern Xinjiang Uighur, its major coal production region near Tibet.
Construction on the passenger rail link project is expected to begin next year, with finances coming from the federal and local governments and other sources, Xinhua reported Tuesday.
The rail line will go through Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces and will facilitate the transport of agricultural products and coal, relieving congestion on the existing 1,175-mile line from Gansu's capital Lanzhou to Xinjiang.
When the project is completed, the existing railway will become a cargo line, the report said.
Xinjiang province with total estimated coal reserves of up to 2.19 trillion tons accounts for 40.5 percent of China's total coal reserves. The province is near Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north and Pakistan and India to the west.

Reported by Mable Chan on 26 November 2008 from www.chinatrainticket.net

The transport for recruits and veterans began

The transport for recruits and veterans in 2008 start up today , and railway department have prepared enough tickets and trains for them, learning from report of The Ministry of Railway.According to survey,Railway department continue to carry out Four Ahead principasl this year.This four principals which contain booking tickets ahead ,luggage consighing ahead, enter and exist checking counter ahead and transit shipment ahead provide more conveinient conditions to recruits and veterans, and make sure the soliders could board trains with original tickets and seats on their trip. Retired veteran also could get discount when they have dinner on restaurant car. Each Railway bureau all of China has established leadership team to make particularity and careful plan to deal with emergency .
Reported by Mable Chan on 26 November 2008 from www.chinatrainticket.net

Qiqihar-Harbin intercity railway is under construction

According to the Ministry of Railways, Qiqihar-Harbin intercity railway is under construction now. It will connect Qiqihar, Daqing and Harbin which are important Industrial cities in northeast of China. This high-speed intercity rail line invested 27 billion yuan is the first cooperation between Ministry of Railways and the government of Heilongjiang. Qiqihar-Harbin intercity railway will be 284.74 km and at a speed of 200-250 km per hour. It will cost only 1 hour from Harbin to Qiqihar. This program will be officially begin operating in 2012.
Reported by Ms. Yang Yang on 27 November 2008 from www.chinatrainticket.net