Showing a printout of your journey helps with this, if you buy at a ticket office you'll be given a printout, if you have booked online you can get a printout by showing your reservation number at a ticket office window. These printouts are labelled Trip information reminder in English. You can still get the traditional blue ticket if you like, but this now a Reimbursement slip and not valid for travel. You can collect it either immediately after your journey or for up to 30 days afterwards, from a staffed ticket window or from the latest type of self-service machine which can recognise foreign passports.
Watch the video guide. The latest type of platform access gate has a passport scanner as well as a Chinese ID card scanner. Courtesy of David Feng. Boarding a train at Beijing Station Beijing station is in central Beijing, 3 km from Tiananmen Square. So arrive in plenty of time, at least 40 minutes before your train leaves.
Whether you arrive by subway or taxi, you end up on the station forecourt seen in the photo below left.
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You then enter the station through any of the odd red-canopied ticket-check kiosks seen in the photo below right in front of the main entrance. There will be a queue in front of each kiosk. Immediately after the ticket check, there's a luggage X-ray check as you enter the building itself.
You can then check the departure display to see which waiting room to go to for your train. Boarding usually starts around minutes before departure. Beijing West is large and busy, so arrive in plenty of time for your train, perhaps 40 minutes before your train leaves. Immediately afterwards there's a luggage X-ray check into the departures hall. Indicator boards on the departure concourse show which train is allocated to which waiting room - here you can see G71 is allocated to waiting room 8. Go to the waiting room shown for your train, this photo shows the sign outside room 8.
The waiting room. Boarding starts perhaps 15 minutes before departure, through automatic ticket gates, closed a few minutes before departure. You may also find departure boards showing the status of each train. Most trains will be shown as 'on time' with the most immediate departures shown as 'waiting', which means you can enter that train's specific waiting room. Once a train is ready for boarding, usually about 30 minutes before departure, it's shown as 'check in', meaning you can proceed through to the platform. Barriers close 5 minutes before departure, and the train is then shown as 'check out'.
Photos in this section are courtesy of Sunil Mehta. Chinese trains generally have four classes, although you won't find every class on every train:. 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. Passengers share with other passengers, but this is no problem, and a good way to meet people.
Can you book a 4-berth soft sleeper for sole or dual occupancy? My advice is to do what the Chinese do, buy one ticket for one berth for one person and share. It's not a problem, and you meet people this way. If you really can't shake off your westerner's concept of privacy and want a whole 4-berth soft sleeper for single or dual occupancy, you can arrange tickets through China DIY if you book early enough, just book 2 soft sleeper tickets as normal using their journey planner and say that you want 4 tickets for sole occupancy of a 4-berth in their special requests box.
If you're on a tight budget or if the soft sleepers are full, there's no reason why you shouldn't go hard sleeper, as many western backpackers do. In spite of the name, hard sleeper bunks are reasonably well padded, and bedding is supplied. 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.
Business class. G-category high-speed trains have a premium first class called Business class.
There is complimentary green tea and juice and a tray meal may be included in the fare, served at your seat. Business class is spacious, carpeted, and the egg-like business class seats recline to a flat bed at the touch of a button. Business class is expensive even by western standards, but it's a real treat, very civilised and relaxed. Premium, premier or superior class Now it gets a bit confusing, so listen up!
All the G-category high-speed trains have a small compartment immediately behind the driving cab at each end of the train, originally called 'sightseeing' because you could look through a glass bulkhead through the driving cab to get a view of the line ahead or behind. However, this glass sightseeing window is now permanently kept electrically frosted up, and on some newer trains it's a solid bulkhead in any case, so the term 'sightseeing' is no longer used.
They all rotate to face the direction of travel, and are sold as normal business class. As these three seats are narrower and don't recline or rotate, they are sold as first class. These seats are the same style of seat found in first class, but they are sold at a higher price than first but less than business.
The Chinese term for this class is usually translated as premium or premier or superior or occasionally deluxe , depending which website you're using. On a few trains you'll also find these superior class seats in a small 6-seat compartment mid-train. Although you'll never find superior class on a train which has business class!
The best trains on key routes such as Beijing-Shanghai have menus in both Chinese and English. Chinese train numbers usually start with a letter, which indicates the category of train.
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Slightly higher fares are charged for the better train categories. Photos of G-category train. Photos of D category sleeper train. Photos of Z category sleeper train.
Slightly higher fares are charged for better categories of train. A typical T or K category long-distance express The restaurant car Some trains even have personal TV screens for each berth. Photos courtesy of Shuhei Terashima. 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. Here, a suitcase is stored in the recess over the door in a 2-berth deluxe soft sleeper on the Beijing-Hong Kong train.
Courtesy of Andy Brabin.
Frequently asked questions
Left luggage office , Beijing South departures hall. This one has lockers, others are staffed. Taking luggage 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. However, in reality no-one weighs or measure your bags, so as long as they will fit through the security X-ray machines and as long as you can carry them all onto the train yourself, you'll be fine. 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.
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You can't take a bike with you onto Chinese trains as carry-on luggage, bikes have to be sent as cargo on a passenger train with a luggage van, which of course means a classic train, not a high-speed train. There are two options:. Option 1 , you can take it to the luggage office at your starting station and check it in, then collect it again from the luggage office at your destination station.
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This option is described in Matt Glaspole's report below. Your bike will travel on whatever train has the necessary luggage van with space available, whatever train you choose to use yourself. If you'd like to arrange this option, contact www. 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.