Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
RETURN TICKETS
Tickets are one-way only. If you want to buy tickets for a train between two destinations
beyond the city you are buying your ticket in, it is often better to go to an independent
ticket office that charges a commission.
BUSY PERIODS
As with air travel, buying tickets around the Chinese New Year and during the 1 May and
1 October holiday periods ranges from very hard to impossible. Particularly at those
times, touts swarm around train stations (especially Běijīng Train Station and Běijīng
West) selling black-market tickets; this can be a way of getting scarce tickets, but foreign-
ers frequently get ripped off. You're better off trying one of the many independent train
ticket offices dotted around the city - they charge a ¥10 mark-up per ticket. Or else ask at
your hotel or hostel - they will usually take a mark-up of around ¥50 per ticket.
ONLINE BOOKINGS
50%). For trains from Hong Kong to Běijīng, tickets can be ordered online at no mark-up
BULLET TRAIN TO TIĀNJĪN
You can't book tickets in advance for the C-class 'bullet train' from Běijīng South to
Tiānjīn; they just put you on the next available train, but you rarely have to wait more than
half an hour (except during public holidays).
Běijīng Train Station
The most central of Běijīng's four main train stations,
Běijīng Train Station
(Běijīng
Zhàn), which is linked to the subway system, is mainly for T-class trains
(tèkuài),
slow
trains and trains bound for the northeast; most fast trains heading south now depart from
Běijīng South Train Station and Běijīng West Train Station. Slower trains to Shànghǎi also
go from here.
Approximate travel times and typical train fares (hard-sleeper unless indicated):
Dàlián
Z-series train, soft-sleeper ¥390, 10½ hours (8.46pm)
Dàlián
T- and K-series, ¥260, 12 hours (6.07pm and 8.06pm)
