Beijing Travel
- Beijing Central Station: serves routes to the north and East.
- Beijing's West Railway Station: serves the South and West of China.
- Beijing South train station: seems to be the largest train station in China
- Beijing North train station
When you buy a ticket, make sure from which train station your train is leaving. For example: all the night trains to Shanghai leave from Beijing Central Station but the only day train (a highspeed train) departs from Beijing South Station.
On the picture is Beijing Central Railway Station (August 2009)
Central Railway Station is in downtown Beijing near Wangfujing/Tiananmen Square.
The main building gives access to the waiting rooms. The ticket office is in a separate smaller building on the right.(not on the picture)
train Beijing - Shanghai
About 10 trains daily to Shanghai. The cheapest is train 1431: a hard seat is $13. Travel time 24 hours and departure is 14.30 in the afternoon. There is only one daytrain from Beijing to Shanghai. Departure is 11.00 from Beijing South Station, arrival 21.00. Fare is $80 for a soft seat first class in the day train. To get a soft seat first class book at least 24 hours ahead otherwise you have to travel 2nd class. In the second class are 5 seats (2 + 3) next to each other, in the first class 2 + 2 seats. Also the passengers in the 2nd class have more and larger luggage than the first class passengers. The other trains depart in the evening from Beijing Central Station and arrive in the morning in Shanghai. Softsleepers are $72. Hardsleepers are $46.
train Beijing - Tianjin
There are dozens of trains departing to Tianjin. With the high-speed train it takes only 30 minutes to get in Tianjin. Fare is $12 for a soft seat first class. Distance is 120km. Cheapest fares with regular train (1,5-2hr)are $3.
train Beijing - Xian
Twelve trains daily to Xian. Distance Beijing - Xian is 1200km. All trains are night trains with a departure from Beijing West Station. The Z19 and Z53 leaves around 21.20 in the evening from Beijing West: arrival in Xian is 8.20 in the morning. Fare for a hard seat is $23, a softsleeper is $62.
Beijing railway stations
Beijing has 3 main railway stations:
Another other railway station is:
Beijing train
train reservations
Most convenience is to get your train ticket at the hotel.
Hotels can often make reservations for trains and airlines for a surcharge. Most hotels ask between 20-100 Yuan per ticket.
Ticket agencies in the city sell train tickets for only 5 Yuan surcharge. But i am not sure if those offices are easy to find/recognize.
Another option is to buy tickets online through the internet. I have the impression that their commission is quit high (a few hundred Yuan per ticket).
Cheapest tickets are sold at the railway station and that was what we did during our journey through China in 2009.
At each railway station is a ticket office. Each window in the ticket office sell tickets to another city/region.
Look in the ticket office at the railway station for a window with english signs like 'foreign guests/ foreigners'.
If there is no such a window look for the information desk.
The information desk is often written in English but most times the people behind it can't speak English.
Write down or tell the name of the city where you are going to and then they will point to which window you must go.
flight - train
A Beijing - Shanghai one-way airline ticket regular price is about 1130 Yuan.
Lowest fare for an early/late flight can be 600 Yuan.
At the Beijing train station a sofsleeper train ticket is about 500 Yuan.
Beijing Central Station - inside the ticket office.
There was no "foreigners counter" inside.
This counter seems to be in the main buiding on the first floor.
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