I love discovering Chinese cultural heritage. So far, I have been to 19 cities with the sole purpose of travelling and exploring the mainland China. Continuing my passionate world tour, in May-2018 I was wandering in the North-Eastern part of the mainland. I started my trip from Suzhou and travelled to three major Chinese provincial capital cities – Harbin (Heilongjiang), Changchun (Jilin), Shenyang (Liaoning). While returning from the trip, I finally took a China High Speed Rail from Shenyang to Suzhou (the train was originally coming Changchun and the final destination was Shanghai).
Well, this was a memorable scenic train journey. In fact, apart from the occasional flights, I have extensively used China bullet train to explore this beautiful country. Now I feel it’s worthwhile to share my China High Speed Rail experience with the world. So, here is the Part 1 of my China train guide. I’ll be writing more blog-posts about the other relevant topic about China bullet train. This post aims at explaining my feelings about China, its high-speed public transport system, the mesmerizing scenic views, countryside, etc.
Related post – Qunar.com Flight Booking Review.
I love photography and the train journey proved to be a wonderful opportunity to capture my trip – I always value photos as the best souvenirs. I took more than 600 photos (including quite a few videos) during this scenic bullet train ride from Shenyang to Suzhou. Some of the selected pics are available in this post for your reference – hopefully, you’d like them (okay, let me know in the comments?).
Btw, travelling in China (and elsewhere) by bus may have its own set of advantages (and some disadvantages as well). So if you are planning your upcoming China travel by bus – here is my blog-post worth checking out- Chinese Intercity Bus Travel Guide.
Why did I choose china high speed rail?
Frankly, I had already booked return flights – Shanghai-Harbin and Shenyang-Shanghai. But I had to cancel my return flight ticket for some personal reasons – the flight cancellation fee was RMB 300. I could, of course, have booked another flight to Shanghai, but the time was running out very fast and I had to make a quick decision. Travelling from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Suzhou takes nearly 4-5 hours.
The train ticket was cheaper, and the train was bringing me direct to Suzhou. The cancellation fees for the Chinese train tickets are also substantially less, fixed, and known in advance.
My longest Chinese train journey
Finally, I decided to buy the train ticket. The train journey was going to consume my one full day. As such, this was my longest Chinese train ride, so far.
How does a bullet train ticket looks like?
Let me show you my Shenyang- Suzhou train ticket. As you can see, the train ticket has so many useful information imprinted on it -such as, the train number (G1212), fare, source and destination, compartment and seat numbers, etc.
china high speed rail map
Here is the latest China high speed rail map (2018) – as you can see, the eastern part of the mainland has a much better fast bullet train connectivity.
If the above Chinese characters look too difficult for you to handle, head to my free lessons to Learn Mandarin Chinese Fast.
Source and destination China High Speed Rail stations
Here are actual complete names of my source and destination stations-
- Source station – Shenyang North Railway Station (沈阳北站, Shěnyáng běi zhàn),
- Destination station – Suzhou North Railway Station (苏州北站, Sūzhōu běi zhàn).
china bullet train speed
The train speed in the fast bullet train is displayed at the gate of each compartment. I was monitoring the train speed very closely. Although the train speed varied from time to time, the peak speed often crossed 300km/hr. Here is the photo I clicked (the train number should be G1212, but I don’t know why it was displayed as G1213)-
china fast train Timing
Well, the train started from Shenyang North station at 10.28am and it took more than 9 hours to get to the Suzhou North Station. The train was very much punctual and followed the prespecified time table throughout the journey.
china train booking
Do you know how to buy train tickets in China? Well, it could be little tricky to buy a Chinese train ticket. You can of course use trip.com to buy the tickets – the whole setup is in English. Once the ticket is booked, you need to come to a railway station in China and collect your train ticket (make sure to check the official working hours of the station).
A foreigner must use his passport number while booking a train ticket. Similarly, while collecting your train ticket, you’ll need to present your passport and booking reference number.
china train tickets – Fare
Well, I bought my high-speed train ticket for RMB 702. The payment was made using Alipay (we can use WeChat as well). In fact, it takes less than 1 minute to book a ticket if you know the procedure. I’ll be soon writing more comprehensive details about a China train booking in my upcoming article – please allow me some time. 🙂
Food in the train
The food is generally not included in a ticket fare (until you have a business class ticket that comes for nearly three times higher price as compared to the class 2 ticket). However, there will be official announcements to buy the food on board. The vendors would often come with a trolley – selling snacks, drinks, etc. Although slightly expensive, the snacks/drinks were served throughout the journey.
As long as you are willing to spend some extra cash, you can buy food virtually anytime.
Moreover, you also have an option to bring food from your home or buy at the station before boarding a train – that’s the cheapest option to eat during a Chinese train journey.
toilets
The toilets in the trains had a well-maintained and satisfactory level of cleanliness – tissues papers, hand-wash, mirror, etc. were all neat and clean. I took some pics to add them in the blog. Here is the toilet collage-
Route of china high speed rail.
Here is the screenshot from my phone depicting the Shenyang to Shanghai train route – as you can see, the train passes through Tianjin, Jinan, Nanjing, etc. You are recommended to use the Baidu Map to conveniently locate the train stations.
Little girls in train
There was a three-member family sitting beside me- they had a little girl who was only 4 years old. They didn’t speak English. But I had a sweet time chatting with the girl. I’d often ask her to give me her water bottle, and she’d refuse. She somehow liked noodles, and her parent didn’t have it. So, a guy from backseat offered them noodles.
When I again asked the little girl to share food and water with me, she’d often say – Wode (我的- my), and I’d also say wode (mine). And she’d never give me anything. The family got down after 4 hours in the train.
An hour before reaching Suzhou, there came a new little girl (6-months old) with her mom. I again had a good chemistry with her as she was very friendly.
scenery
The whole trip was passing through a variety of terrains and the scenery never failed to amaze me. My camera was always ready to capture the moments as and when necessary.
As you can see in the photos, the mother nature always bestowed all her grace upon us – all the time.
There were white barricades consistently bordering along the train track to ensure that no one ever enters the track. The white colored track borders can be seen clearly in the photos-
No smoking in the train
Smoking in the fast bullet train is strictly prohibited in China.
The fine varies from RMB 500 to 2000 – depending on the severity of the situation. The announcements about the smoking fines are made on a regular interval.
Flyover on flyover
China is the only country where I have seen flyover on flyover – this is more common in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. But you can find them elsewhere as well – here is the one that I saw from the moving train-
China’s countryside
Well, a train journey is also a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with China’s massive countryside. The area in general looks clean and picturesque. How do you feel about this?
And how about this one?
The electric power distribution
Throughout the journey, I came across many wide-open fields where electric power was transmitted via huge high-voltage transmission network.
The cell phone signal transmission steel poles were also omnipresent.
Train seating arrangements – inside view
Here is how a bullet train compartment looked from inside. The seating arrangement is 2*3 – there are 5 seats in each row, and 18-20 rows in each of the compartments.
Then we reached Suzhou
Finally, we reached the Suzhou North Railway station in the night. Although it was indeed a long journey and I was completing a long trip, I wasn’t that tired with the train journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. And would love to start a new trip again. Here is the train departing from Suzhou to Shanghai-
A comfortable and safe journey
Be it playing with kids, taking travel photos, eating snacks, checking phone or reading news articles, I didn’t realize how the 9-hour long journey passed so smoothly. It shouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a bullet train journey in China is indeed a very good lifetime experience – one of the top things to do in China.
In summary, in this China train guide I’d strongly recommend trying the fast bullet train in China. The scenic views, punctuality, safety, friendliness of staff and people, etc. would give you a better perspective about China and its ever-improving economic might. The China High Speed Rail fares are not that cheap, but the cancellation prices are quite cheap (further details in the upcoming blog-posts).
That’s all in this post about China High Speed Rail!
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Wish you loads of memorable trips with China High Speed Rail!
Cheers!
Last updated: Sunday, June 17, 2018