Trains
chinatraintrip.com
Diffidently the way to get from one long distance location to the next would be by train. Of course, it can also be the most crazy, busy, and hectic at times too. One thing to learn, NEVER travel anywhere on a holiday (click here to find a list). Especially the big holidays, like Chinese New Year, where people will be going home to visit family. Already these stations are packed full of people, but during any of these times its a mad house.
We found that you will need to go no earlier than 3 days in advance to purchase tickets for the train stations, and it seemed like the only real way to purchase these tickets had to be in person at the station, but again this was according to our students that would help us make all of the arrangements. Finding good students (good meaning trustworthy and good at English) was key to doing all of these travel arrangements, it helped immensely.
Once you get to desk to now buy your ticket (seemed like we could only purchase a one way at the time, you would have to visit the destination train station to get a ticket to come back) you will need to make your selection between what type of seating the train has to offer. The choices are regular seat, hard sleeper or a soft sleeper (basically do you want to sit or lay down for the duration of the trip..and once you have made that choice, do you want it to be padded when you lay down). As you can imagine, the price goes up as your choice towards comfort is directed. We never have YET, tried the sleeper options, but I can only imagine that they would be improved choice from the general seating, here's why....
First, as a common problem in China as you will soon find out, Smoking, according to the signs all over is not allowed on trains or buses or whatever, but no one seems to care. Only when we would ask that they smoke elsewhere for the sake of our 10 month old baby would they even think about it, and sometimes that wasn't even enough.
Second, if you are traveling very far (like over 4 hrs) and can't sleep sitting up, or don't want your seat neighbor's head resting on you, might want to rethink your options. This option was most often the most crowded and most uncomfortable seat, but again it was the cheapest. Only reason we took this type of choice to travel on the trains (even when we traveled 8 hrs on one) was to get the full experience of what our students went through.
Some would travel up to 16 or 20 hrs for a one way trip, and often when it gets busy, there isn't any seats, you would have to stand the whole way. Sometimes people (like men) would get up for standing women, but it all really just depends on what that person believes would be the right thing, or even if they cared at all.
We found that you will need to go no earlier than 3 days in advance to purchase tickets for the train stations, and it seemed like the only real way to purchase these tickets had to be in person at the station, but again this was according to our students that would help us make all of the arrangements. Finding good students (good meaning trustworthy and good at English) was key to doing all of these travel arrangements, it helped immensely.
Once you get to desk to now buy your ticket (seemed like we could only purchase a one way at the time, you would have to visit the destination train station to get a ticket to come back) you will need to make your selection between what type of seating the train has to offer. The choices are regular seat, hard sleeper or a soft sleeper (basically do you want to sit or lay down for the duration of the trip..and once you have made that choice, do you want it to be padded when you lay down). As you can imagine, the price goes up as your choice towards comfort is directed. We never have YET, tried the sleeper options, but I can only imagine that they would be improved choice from the general seating, here's why....
First, as a common problem in China as you will soon find out, Smoking, according to the signs all over is not allowed on trains or buses or whatever, but no one seems to care. Only when we would ask that they smoke elsewhere for the sake of our 10 month old baby would they even think about it, and sometimes that wasn't even enough.
Second, if you are traveling very far (like over 4 hrs) and can't sleep sitting up, or don't want your seat neighbor's head resting on you, might want to rethink your options. This option was most often the most crowded and most uncomfortable seat, but again it was the cheapest. Only reason we took this type of choice to travel on the trains (even when we traveled 8 hrs on one) was to get the full experience of what our students went through.
Some would travel up to 16 or 20 hrs for a one way trip, and often when it gets busy, there isn't any seats, you would have to stand the whole way. Sometimes people (like men) would get up for standing women, but it all really just depends on what that person believes would be the right thing, or even if they cared at all.
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