Published by Swiss James on 15 Aug 2008 at 02:13 pm
Train from Shanghai to Beijing
Taking the train from Shanghai to Beijing is really convenient- you get on board at night, eat a little, drink a little, and wake up as the train pulls into Beijing Train Station in time for breakfast. The T train leaves Shanghai Railway Station (a den of thieves and brigands so be careful) at 20:26 on Friday night, and arrives some 13 hours later. It would be a fast train (the T stands for “especially fast” in Chinese) if it didn’t keep stopping in various places, but it’s still amongst the quickest routes on offer.
A train ticket from Shanghai to Beijing costs 478RMB (cheaper on a slower train and/or lower class seat)
The best class of ticket is “soft sleeper” which gets you a place in a 4 bed berth with a pot of hot water, small table, comfortable bunk beds, and that’s about it (what do you want, a bouncy castle? It’s on a train). The linen is provided; it’s clean and is changed every trip. Attendants come round regularly to tell people when the train is at their station (they hold onto your ticket too, so no point trying to stay on past your stop), empty the bins and recharge the hot water.
Unless you booked plenty of time (maximum 12 days) in advance and are travelling with 3 other people, you’ll probably end up sharing your carriage with someone else. The two Chinese businessmen in the car with me and Emma didn’t say a single word to us the entire journey. Perfect!
The (Chinese) food in the dining car is cheap, foreigner friendly (i.e. no crazy animals, no crazy parts of animals) and as good as a cheap Chinese restaurants downtown. Beer is cheap, cheap, cheap and if they hadn’t shut the dining carriage down at midnight, I would have stayed up, drinking and toasting with the other diners.
Getting to sleep with a belly full of beer and the gentle rocking of the train is like falling off a log.
I’m flying this weekend, but only because time is tight, the train is definitely a lot more fun. I’d also recommend taking the train from Shanghai to Shenzhen, great stuff even though I was in hard sleeper class that time.
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Hard sleeper is just as fun, if not more, than soft sleeper. I’ve found the hard sleeper folks tend to be a lot more chatty and curious – and if you’re two single guys just out of college, will not let you purchase 1 beer, 1 soft drink or 1 item of food and will insist on spending every waking hour stuffing homemade food, train food or bottles of beer and soda down your throat.
Or maybe that was just me and Matt Parker.
Ah that young man sleeping looks so adorable. I’ve seen Emma looking better though. I think you’re skating on thin ice by going to the Beijing Olympics while she’s away *and* posting that picture!
Emma looks like she’s going to say “put that bloody camera away ISpyShang… wossyour name again?…”
why the date on the ticket is 6.20 2008?
I hope you packed your Free Tibet shirts and banners. Do they have Free Tibet shoes? I guess we’ll find out on Tuesday ;)
I love taking the train around in China. I usually make a point to ask for a bed on the bottom level though, much more relaxing to be able to sit back in your bed on ground floor.
Ground floor, bottom bed, same difference.
Your writing is getting funnier and funnier all the time. Is life just funnier now that you’re dirty thirty?
I think Emma looks totally hot – bedroom eyes!
Soft Sleeper….that’s for Southern softies….I expect you to go hard seat from Shangai to Urumqi to prove your northern credentials….
Go Team GB- what did you say to them, James? Because whatever it was, it seems to have done the trick this weekend!
Yeah when we took the hard sleeper there was a lot more chatting with the other passengers.
I don’t know though, there isn’t much difference in terms of the beds or the amount of room you get, but it’s nice to be able to close the door of your cabin which you can’t do in Hard class.
Shanghai to Urumqi is a journey I’d love to take- all that way across China, boy you’d really get a feel for the size of the place then. Wonder if I’ll ever do it..
joey- this is the last time I went to Beijing, that’s why the date is old.
missbels- I just told them it wasn’t good enough and that if they didn’t sort themselves out, I’d tell their Mum and Dad. That always does the trick.
Train, train, train, train, train… Shameless :)
SEO
You caught it from where to where again?
Sounds like it was good fun–being there for the 100.
hehe you got it Rory!
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hi. i am designing a schoolbook about traveling, where i need a train ticket from beijing. do you have a copyright on this picture of a train ticket above? and do you maybe have it in a better resolution?
Hi
May I know where you bought the tickets? Can one buy them in advance online? I will be travelling to China in mid-Nov so will appreciate your advice – thanks much!
P
I bought them from the ticket office opposite McDonalds on Huashan Lu in the Jing-An district. You can buy tickets up to 11 days in advance, as long as it’s not a public holiday, but you can’t get them online.
Could try asking your hotel to book them for you, they should charge something like 5% handling fee.