China Travel Forum

[Kenndy]

Hi all,
I will be travelling in China for 7 days in sptember, flying into and out of Shanghai. I want to tour Shanghai (2 days)=>Beijing (4 days)=>Xian (1 day)=>Shanghai ,itmeans loop tour by train but have the feeling that given my time frame, that may be a little too ambitious....
Is the train system at this time of year generally reliable schedule-wise? I'm thinking of the possiblility of flooding etc. My plan as it stands relies on getting an overnight train from Xian to Shanghai on the morning I fly out (to Korea). Advisable? Or should I replan so that my 2 days in Shanghai are split at the start/end of the trip to avoid delays that might make me miss a flight? Or should I just accept that Xian is for 'next time'?

[kamal]

Hi
The trains in China are always exactly on time to the minute!! So from that point of view you should not have a problem.
Bear in mind that a lot of journeys are overnight, ie you leave at 5pm and arrive mid-morning, so by the time you've sorted out your train ticket for the next part of your journey, you won't have much time (this is especially true for your day tour in Xi'an) - possibly 3 days in Beijing and 2 in Xi'an might be better? It takes a whole day to see the Terracotta Warriors, and they are definitely worth seeing! If you definitely want to spend 4 days in Bejing then its probably better to miss it out this time.
Watch what type of train you get, as the length of your journey can vary a lot depending on whether you get an express train (these have a 'K' or a 'T' in front of the train number eg K247) or a slow train, which has no prefix and is just numbers, eg 2119, these are really really slow and can make a very big difference to how long it takes you to get to your destination

[Guest]

thanks kamal
The express trains are definitely the way to go for me- I'd rather pay the little extra for the saved time. I guess the other issue is taking the risk that when I arrive (especially in Xian) I can book the right ticket back to Shanghai... I really do want to see Xian so perhaps a little tweaking of the time spent in Beijing is worth it.

[kammal]

I think you are being ambitious, I would throw in one way flight to save you some time.
The trains are good and always on time but getting the ticket is the problem, we got the hotel to get our ticket from Xian to Beijing, it took them at least one day.
When in Xian try the Shangde Hotel, its only about 300 metres from the train station, handy if you are using the trains, also rooms not bad, but dorms rooms were very average in the basement and ablutions in dorms were very basic.
I don't think you could organise all those train tickets without at least more time to have to play with.
The distances are also quite large, but whatever you do don't miss out on the warriors, they were awesome!!!
Also agree with above make sure you get the K trains as they stop less and are faster.
Good luck.

[Jessie]

There is only 1 train from Xi'an to Shanghai that you can buy any kind of non-no-seat ticket for in Xi'an, and that train takes about 19 hours. My usual advice, when doing this loop, is to take Shanghai--Xi'an--Beijing--Shanghai instead, as tickets are generally easier to get. If you're going to take the Z trains between Xi'an--Beijing and Beijing--Shanghai, you can even buy the tickets before you leave Shanghai, thus saving you a lot of headache later on in the trip. The rails for the journeys that you're considering shouldn't be affected by the floods, which are mostly affecting south-eastern China. However, if you're thinking that you might be too stressed out, yes, I agree that leaving Xi'an for a later trip will be prudent.
Cheers!