Originally Posted by
jiejie
To save valuable daytime hours for sightseeing, also money, and have an experience the kids would find fun, consider taking the overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an, preferably a Z type (or T type) in soft sleeper.
1 overnight Z train, Z19, takes 11:15, from 20:43 to 7:58. 7 T trains, of which the fastest is not quite overnight, arriving at 2:00 (destination is Lanzhou). The other 6 take between 12:44 and 14:29, leaving Beijing from 14:33 till 21:15.
Z soft sleepers cost 398 yuan 5 jiao (upper) and 415 yuan 5 jiao (lower).
Originally Posted by
jiejie
One compartment for the 4 of you, kids get the upper bunks.
With your own quote:
Originally Posted by
jiejie
Finally, for parties of two or more, there's also the matter of not being guaranteed all berths in one compartment. Online sales assigns berths sequentially and it's possible to get berths assigned across compartment dividers. Window sales you can request but if a train is already heavily booked, your party might be split up anyway. Often happens that a group of 4 wants soft sleeper berths and gets assigned 4 uppers spread across 3 or 4 different compartments.
With 2 different compartments, they might split each child with a different parent of the split is 2:2, and leave one parent alone with strangers if the split is 1:3. With more than 2 compartments, there will certainly be unaccompanied children of 8 or less.
Are the ID assignments of individual berths within a group also enforced?
Also, what is the minimum length for the children to occupy a separate berth, and is it enforced against too short children trying to occupy a berth?
Originally Posted by
jiejie
For the return, consider a bullet train rather than a flight.
Is there any specific reason to return by G and arrive by Z, rather than vice versa?
Originally Posted by
jiejie
Due to speed, these would be seat tickets only, and probably obtainable once you get to Beijing. There are 8 G bullet trains per day leaving Xi'an between 07:50 and 17:55, journey on most of them is about 5.5 hours. Saves the hassle of having to commute out to distant airports and back, and eliminates the risk of flight delays.
Specifically, 7 of them are 5:27 to 5:58, and G87 is 4:40, leaving Xian at 13:10. Second class seats are 515 yuan 5 jiao, first class 824 yuan 5 jiao, VIP seat 981 yuan 5 jiao.