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lguscott
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:16 am Post subject: Trains in China |
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| Does anyone know how this works? I've gone to a bunch of sites, but none of them seem to have an official schedule, and those that seem semi-reliable dont sell tickets. Is it best just to wait and buy them the day of? |
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pugwall
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:26 am Post subject: |
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| I think you can only buy them 5 days before. You should be fine though as long as you are not travelling in a major festival(New Year, October 1st week, May 4th week). |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:35 am Post subject: China |
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'pugwall' is right. You can only buy them from the specific train station, a few days before.
To clarify, it's not possible to buy a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing in Shenzhen or Kunming. You have to buy the ticket in Shanghai stn.
The train stn in Xian had a special queue for foreigners only. This is common at other major train stns, around China, too. |
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pugwall
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:39 am Post subject: |
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Or you can go to a branch of the CTS in town.
Buses in china are pretty decent sleeper with bed affairs and often quicker than trains. If you can't get a train you can always get a bus even in major holidays. |
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lguscott
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| thats good to know about the buses because im going to be there during the new year |
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SeoulFinn
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Location: 1h from Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:33 pm Post subject: Re: China |
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| chris_J2 wrote: |
| The train stn in Xian had a special queue for foreigners only. This is common at other major train stns, around China, too. |
Yup. Sometimes the most difficult part is to find the right counter to get service. Once the clerk refused to sell me a ticket because I wasn't at the "Big Nose" counter. We were communicating in (my halting) Chinese and I had all the information written down in hanzi (where, when, what kind of a bed) but she still refused to sell me the ticket. But I got my ticket soon enough from the right counter.
When I was in Xian the beds on the train to Shanghai were fully booked. I found a private ticket company... or someting like that, a hole in a wall kiosk... and bought a soft sleeper for the same train. The funny thing is, that their price was lower than the ticket would have been, if I had bought it from the station! |
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