Chinese trains link virtually all main cities and towns in China, and are a safe, comfortable & civilised way to travel, even for families or women travelling alone.
Classes of seat & sleeper...
Chinese trains generally have 4 classes, although you won't find every class on every train:
- Soft sleeper: Most western travellers travel soft sleeper, a comfortable, civilised & affordable way to travel. Soft sleepers are spacious 4-berth compartments with two upper & two lower berths by night, converting to two sofas for daytime use. All necessary bedding is provided. There's a table with tablecloth, and usually a vacuum flask of hot water for making tea (or drinking chocolate or cuppas soups if you've brought some). The compartment door locks securely, and a smartly-dressed attendant looks after each car. The best trains even feature individual TV screens and power sockets for laptops & mobiles. Passengers share with other passengers, but this is no problem, and a good way to meet people.
- Hard sleeper: If you're on a tight budget, there's no reason why you shouldn't travel in a hard sleeper, as many western backpackers do. Hard sleeper consists of open-plan carriages with a broad aisle on one side of the car, bays of 6 bunks (upper, middle & lower) on the other side. In spite of the name, hard sleeper bunks are reasonably well padded, and bedding is supplied. Newer trains even have power sockets for laptops & mobiles.
- Soft seat & hard seat: Equivalent to first & second class seats on a European train. Short distance daytime trains often only have hard class seats, though some inter-city trains have both soft & hard class. 'Hard' seats are usually padded and reasonable comfortable, in spite of the name.
You'll also now find these additional classes on certain trains:
- 1st & 2nd class seats: Just to confuse you, the new high-speed C, D & G category trains are described as having '1st class' & '2nd class' seats, sometimes translated as 'business' & 'economy'. The Chinese officially classify these trains as '1st class soft seat' and '2nd class soft seat', as this allows the Ministry of Railways to get around government regulations that limit the price of normal hard & soft class ticket train fares.
- Deluxe soft sleeper: In addition to the normal classes, a handful of trains also have deluxe soft sleepers, include Beijing-Hong Kong, Beijing-Shanghai & Beijing-Xian. These are 2-berth compartments with private toilet. There are only limited numbers of these 2-berth compartments are available, often booked by government officials, so by all means ask for one but don't bang your head against a brick wall trying to get one, be prepared to travel in normal 4-berth soft class if necessary. Sharing a 4-berth really isn't a problem, it's the norm in China, and you might even meet some real Chinese people this way.
Restaurant cars, toilets, smoking...
- Toilets: Chinese trains generally have both western & 'squat' toilets, but it's always a good idea to take your own supply of toilet paper. The toilets on the modern D & Z category trains are immaculate, so no worries there!
- Restaurant cars: Most long-distance trains have a restaurant car, with waiter service of drinks, snacks & meals. The best trains on key routes such as Beijing-Shanghai have menus in both Chinese and English.
- Smoking: Smoking is not permitted in the sleeping-car compartments or corridors on any Chinese train, or anywhere at all on board high-speed trains or the pressurised trains to Tibet. But smoking is allowed in the vestibules between carriages and in some restaurant cars on the regular T & K category long-distance trains.
Categories of train...
Chinese train numbers usually start with a letter, which indicates the category of train. The better the category of train, the faster it is likely to be, and the more modern & comfortable the carriages are likely to be. Slightly higher fares are charged for the better train categories.
- C, D & G trains (modern high-speed daytime & sleeper trains): These are top-quality high-speed trains with ultra-modern air-conditioned coaches and streamlined power-cars at each end. Some are high-speed 200-300km/h daytime electric trains, a few D-trains are high-quality 200km/h sleeper trains. Photos of D category sleeper train.
- Z trains (high-quality express sleeper trains): The previous top-quality sleeper train, the 'Z' trains are now the second best, but still with very modern air-conditioned coaches. Photos of Z category sleeper train
- T trains ('extra fast'): Trains with a 'T' in the train number are the next best category, see the photos below.
- K trains ('fast'): Trains with a 'K' in the train number are 'fast'. Slightly higher fares are charged for better categories of train.
A typical T or K category Chinese train...
'T' & 'K' category trains may not be as glamorous as the front-rank 'D' or 'Z' category trains, but even these T or K trains are usually very comfortable, often modern & air-conditioned.
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A typical 'T' or 'K' category long-distance express...
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The restaurant car...
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Soft sleeper consists of spacious carpeted & lockable 4-berth compartments, with toilets & washrooms at the end of the corridor. Note the lacy decor & flower in a vase on the tablecloth! Some trains even have personal TV screens for each berth. Photos courtesy of Shuhei Terashima
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Hard sleeper consists of open bays of 6 bunks (upper, middle & lower) on one side of an aisle. In spite of its name, berths are padded, bedding is supplied, and many budget western travellers prefer it. There are fold-out seats in the aisle either side of small tables. Photos courtesy of Gabriel Chew.
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Finding & boarding your train...
Beijing Main Station. Photo courtesy of Peter & Janet Jackson
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Beijing South Station: The lesser-known Beijing South Station is now the place to catch the high-speed 'C' & 'D' category trains from Beijing to Shanghai or Tianjin. Courtesy of Gabriel Chew
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Luggage on Chinese trains: Your luggage stays with you on Chinese trains, in your sleeper compartment. Here, a suitcase is stored on the recess over the door in a 2-berth deluxe soft sleeper on the Beijing-Hong Kong train. Photo courtesy of Andy Brabin.
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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. At major stations such as in Beijing or Shanghai there are security checks (including airline-style X-ray luggage checks) to go through before boarding. Departure indicators may be in Chinese, but you can easily find your train if you know the train number and departure time.
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 a few remaining trains to Shanghai. The direct train to Hong Kong and trains to Xian, Guangzhou & Tibet all use Beijing's newer West station. The daytime and sleeper high-speed 'D' category trains from Beijing to Shanghai now use the lesser-knownBeijing South station.
- Both Beijing Main & West 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'.
Luggage & bikes on Chinese trains...
- You take your bags with you onto the train, and put them on the racks in your sleeper compartment. At major stations, bags may be X-rayed before boarding.
- In theory at least, the luggage limit on Chinese trains is 20 Kg for adults, 10 Kg for children, and the maximum dimension of any item should not exceed 160 cm (this is reduced to 130cm on all C, D & G category high-speed trains). However, in reality no-one will weigh or measure your bags, as long as they will fit through the security X-ray machines, and as long as you can carry them all onto the train. If you really want to transport vast quantities of luggage you can pay for a baggage ticket for bags in excess of the official limits.
- Traveller Matt Glaspole reports on taking a bicycle on Chinese trains: "Not every train has a luggage van, but if you mention in the ticket office that you have a bicycle, the ticket staff can book you onto a train that has one. If you do have to take a train without a luggage van, the luggage staff will send your bicycle on the next train that does have one. Once you have your ticket, you need to find the luggage office, which is often hidden around the back of the station somewhere. You might not find any English spoken here, but your train tickets should give the staff all the information they need. The luggage service is a bit old fashioned, and the charges can involve a few RMB in 'tips' to the officials involved. The luggage rates are calculated per kilometre like a passenger ticket, but are not as expensive. If you take the pedals or anything else off to prevent joyriding, point this out to the staff so they can make a note of this on the luggage ticket. This indemnifies them from the potential that you or someone else at the other end will accuse them of having lost or stolen the missing bits. Once, I didn't mention to the staff that the pedals were missing, and they starting combing the town near the station to find me, so they could amend the ticket. Accusations of theft must be very serious! My bicycle was never damaged in the luggage vans, although other cyclists have found themselves missing a bungee strap or two from time to tim
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