YVR Cockroach

Go to ctrip and you can get an idea of pricing (decent place to buy tickets too).

YVR Cockroach

There's a recent thread in European Rail Travel about this. Austrian railways (OeBB/ÖBB) also has a business class product which is a cut above first. My reason is that European railways sell tickets for each other's train when crossing national borders and have standardised to 1st and 2nd. If you want a more luxurious (and costly) product, you can't rebrand it as 1st w/o disrupting ticketing so it's called business. No such equivalent with China rail but it probably didn't want to rebrand/rename soft seat either.

Some of the lines have a sightseeing class that has slightly roomier seats at the front/end of trains but leg room may be severely limited!

mosburger

Food and a beverage are complementary in business class. I'd say worth an upgrade on any HSR trips over five hours due to seat comfort and the possibility to stretch out and sleep.

However, the food on the Chinese HSR carriages isn't exactly at gourmet levels. A better choice would be to bring along your own food & beverages.

The old style carriages include a real kitchen. so you can enjoy tasty Chinese delicacies on the slower T and Z night trains for example.

On HSR routes and carriages it's microwaved "TV dinners" only.

warakorn

Let me respond to the questions:

The hot lunch was not included in the fare.
Train attendants were distributing a soft drink and Chinese snack for free.

I bought the lunch from the trolley; prices have been creeping up over the past years. It was something around EUR 7.
The food itself is good. While it is not cooked on board, it was prepared the night before. Its not a TV dinner.

ctrip is the best place for foreigners to buy their tickets. You get your confirmation, whether you get a ticket, usually within 60 minutes. Moreover, ctrip also sells tickets on classical night trains. ctrip accepts all major cards; other train ticketing agencies will only accept Paypal, which (in my eyes) is rather painful.
The only drawback is that you need to pick up your physical ticket at a ticket counter, which is not so easy (queues, people cutting the line).

Yes, Business Class is much better than First Class.
The price is about double. For me it is not worthwile.

You do not get a blanked or pillow to enjoy your flatbed. You sleep on some cheap leather, where hundreds of other passengers have salivated on.
You sit next to the crowd of loud chatting train staff (it is baffling how much staff is their on each train), who take their break there.
You cannot watch the train driver over their shoulder (cab view), because the train driver will turn the class divider opaque.
Service is nothing compared to an airline. You may get some soft drinks or some cheap wine from the trolley, but not much more.

fly747first

And with huge flat bed seats!

lcpteck

You can use this site for train schedule and estimated pricing.

valdor

You can also search for prices and book tickets directly on the Chinese government site:
https://kyfw.12306.cn/otn/

(it's all in Chinese and you'll need a local bank card)

lcpteck

Yeah the good thing about this site is you can choose seats. Too bad I can't read chinese, also don't have a local bank card.

BuildingMyBento

Although you didn't make it there on this trip, Quanzhou's a good place to visit for its history (major silk road port; they've got a hundreds-year old mosque, too).

warakorn

Max speed was 312 km/h, but we did not hold that speed throughout the journey. The section between Shanghai Hongqiao and Shangrao is pretty busy.
At Quanzhou and Yushan South we were standing like for 10-15 minutes to let other trains pass.
The section between Fuzhou and Xiamen is only certified for operations up to 200 km/h.

warakorn

If you want experience huge flat bed seats, you can take a classical night trains in soft or hard sleeper. Its only a fraction of the Business Class price.

dickie98

I will usually choose to take business class to Beijing from Shanghai during rainy season. Fewer delays and a very remote chance of cancellation, its the safe bet to get where you need to go. Pricing is about the same as a plane ticket, I think its may be a few hundred RMB more. Travel time ranges from 4.5 hrs to 6 hours depending on the number of stops, which can sometimes be faster than a scheduled 2hr flight depending on ATC.

Contrary to OP's statement, you do get a pillow and blanket in business, although I usually run a bit hot and they generally keep cabin temps high-ish for me. The food is ok but I usually try to grab something at the terminal in case you're left with a less than great option from the cart. The train food is usually pretty salty and definitely a greasy.

I've never had trouble sleeping but you do need to watch out as the cell phones and small objects slip into and underneath the seat and you definitely need to get help from an attendant to get it out. Best seat is the first row, which is a 1x1 configuration; all other rows are a 2x1 configuration. Avoid row 2 (last row in the first cabin section) unless you are travelling with someone since its a love seat configuration, which is awkward if seated next to a stranger.

MatthewLAX

I did Beijing to Xi'an overnight train in a sleeper for about USD$99 for two.

moondog

I rarely pay more than Y750 for plane tickets (and, Y500 all in is usually possible if you don't mind flying early/late); business class on the train is Y1748. Granted 2nd are 1st class are probably better comparisons, but flying is still competitive with these. I only take the train between Shanghai and Beijing during known delay seasons these days. My two biggest dislikes are 1. the food (including the unavoidable smells) and 2. the train stations (crowded, and BJ South is amazingly annoying to leave).

EchoVictor

I suspect it's not a translation errror.

I can't find a support article on the internet, but when I was there two years ago, I was told that by my hotel staff that they flipped the names intentionally because there is a backlash against government bureaucrats traveling in first class. Hence, by flipping them, you solve the problem. Gov't workers are only traveling in business now!