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 four 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. 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.
- Business class. G-category high-speed trains have a premium first class called Business class. This has individual reclining seats with footrests, and a meal may be included in the fare, served at your seat. Some business class seats are located in the train's end car behind the driver (indeed on the shorter trainsets this may be the only business class seating on the train), and these are sometimes called VIP or Sightseeing seats although they count as business class.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 time."
Luggage storage at stations...
- There are left luggage offices at main stations, including Beijing West, Xian, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai, Shenzhen. Expect it to cost around RMB 5 per bag (50p or $1)
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