My last trip to China to Chengdu, I used more black cabs/non licensed vehicles than I did all the time I lived in China. Call it capitulation.

This thread will help you on time and cost options.


I've also made a link to that, on the first page of this thread under "Intercity Travel--Domestic Flights" (end of that post), and under the section "Local Area Transport" under the Airport Shuttle section.

Thanks!

Hey all,

I know train tickets are refundable at a cost of 20%.

What about buses?

Found my own answer at Baidu.

Very comprehensive answer.

Refunds 2 hours before scheduled departure, a fee of 10% of fare

Refunds within 2 hours of scheduled departure, a fee of 20%

Refunds within 1 hour AFTER schedule departure, a fee of 50%

I observe total lack of comments on water transport.

Good point. Originally had something drafted up, but it consisted mostly of the Yangtze trip, the Li River trip (Guilin), the Grand Canal, and some minor domestic coastal ferry stuff. Due to limited usefulness and the fact that it's mostly tourist-oriented rather than regular public transport, it was not included in the original. But we can update that information, and then add to this thread.

Do you have suggestions?

Much of the coastal ferry stuff is surely regular public transport - most islands, including Hainan, cannot be reached by ground transport. And there are plenty of shortcuts which are regular public transport, too - across Bohai between Shandong and Liaodong, across Pearl River... Yangtze does have around 60 bridges over the 2900 km between Yibin and sea by now.

We'll put something together, though I'm not sure how much first-hand experience we can jointly muster on all these routes. And yes, while coastal ferry is public transport, for FT demographics, it would tend to be the least likely to be used, vs the other methods already presented, which were judged to be of higher priority. As unpaid volunteers with other claims on our time, there is only so much output we can do for the forum in a given year.

If you have first-hand experience on any aspect of water transport in China, shoot me a PM (or if lengthy, use the email in my profile) and it can get incorporated into this effort. Actually, that offer is open to anybody reading this post.

I can only contribute to HKG-Shenzhen, HKG-Macao, and Zhuhai-Shenzhen. Let me know what is needed from my VERY limited exp.

I am using to ctrip to try to purchase a ticket from Chengdu to Shanghai.

Nearly all of the tickets come with this condition:

"Limited to mail delivery and Chengdu local delivery or pickup.Airport ticket pickup available." The tickets list no other restrictions (e.g., age), other than having various penalties for changes.

I haven't received an airline ticket by anything other than email in 10 years. Does this warning matter and would I actually need to pick up a ticket at the airport in Chengdu?

It could mean to pick up the 'fapio' at the airport. fapio is the chinese receipt.

This is nothing to worry about. I've seen various versions of these messages on ctrip and other sites. Possible clarification:

As Jiatong says, they are referring to delivering the "blue" fapiao receipt. I'd be about 95% sure this is it. Normal tickets are e-tickets and showing identification is all that's needed when you check in, as your ticket record will be in the system. Do bring along a printout of an email confirmation though (or SMS confirmation on a Chinese mobile). However, the blue fapiao official receipt is a paper document, and many passengers want/need for reimbursement or other purposes. The average foreign leisure traveler would not need this receipt though, and can safely ignore.

One other item on Chinese domestic air tickets, that probably doesn't apply in drewguy's case: ticketing from these agents if flight is within 48-72 hours time window, and trying to pay with a foreign credit card--usually you can't. In these situations, which can happen if needing something last minute when already in China and already "in the field," the solution is either order/pay with Chinese bank card, or have an airport pickup arranged, where you pay cash RMB. I had to do this recently for a flight departure leaving about 4 hours later. Ordered it up from ctrip via phone from Wuhan train station, eticket receipt waiting for me 2 hours later when I arrived at Wuhan airport. Paid by cash.

I was wondering if that might be the case. I've been looking at various flights to different cities and this showed up only with Chengdu, so I was wondering if there was some sort of local restriction.

Doubt it. More likely to be a blip in their website programming for this page.

We just got a deal of about 1/2 the going F fare (we paid 1440 each) for a Hainan (HU) flight PEK-CTU. The fare rules are a bit confusing:

"Economy class full price to enjoy First Class service on the plane, but with gate and ground service at economy class"

Does anyone have any real experience with what I actually get? Just not sure how much they limit "ground service."

I will get the F seat and meal.

I am pretty sure that I won't get the PEK lounge.

But do I get the F Check-in? F boarding?

Any advice is appreciated.