Originally Posted by
mosburger
Different characters. you resemble my risk loving dad.
I for my part have inherited a cautious, perfectionist approach from my mom, especially as I'm riding Chinese trains more often with clients and biz partners than not these days.
Would never even try to arrive at any Chinese train station later than 20 minutes before departure as you can well spend several of those precious minutes in the security line at the larger ones. Then, maybe you just have to head to platform 27 on the other side of a vast and fully crowded departures hall...
Preferably I'll be there 30 minutes before departure (before security that is) And, in my case, if applicable, the departure will be on a night train so the station should be relatively quiet and calm.
Sure, I have a fairly high risk tolerance, but I can't recall ever missing a train. Furthermore, the more I do the drill, the more comfortable I get with further schedule optimization.
Let's take the Hongqiao example:
-almost all of the Beijing trains I use most frequently depart from track 1, and this is a known variable because it's printed on the tickets
-track 1 is the furthest away from the subway, but the walk/security never takes me more than 6 minutes
-this means the line 2 train that arrives at 250p allows enough time to catch G18 (3p departure)
-btw, I only use blue tickets; pink tickets introduce an unpredictable human element into the equation