Yes, I am leaning towards not making the trip up to BJ and spending our time in and around Shanghai. I booked 4 nights at Le Royal Meridian and 3 at FS in Hangzhou. I have 1 more night to book and thinking of 1 night in Nanjing. Is there a "bullet" train between Hangzhou and Suzhou? Thanks.

Not really; you pass through Shanghai, which is out of the way.

Hangzhou to Suzhou
 

Bus - Direct 1.5 hours


Bullet Train: Not Direct (2.3 hours)

Hangzhou -- Suzhou:

D5590

http://www.cnvol.com/train-5/en-1438.htm

Yes there is. It passes through Shanghai but you do not have to change trains. be careful which station in Hangzhou you are looking at. I ended up at some out of the way suburban station that took over and hour to get into the city from. The hotel in Suzhou got the tickets and they put us on the wrong train.

I highly recommend Le Royal Meridian, where I stayed. The breakfast is fabulous-you can have Chinese lunch food for breakfast, sushi, and salad. Much better than bacon and eggs. If you ask for cappuccino they make it to order and bring to your table.

It sounds like the bus is a viable option between Hangzhou and Suzhou. I am just wondering how "smoky" these busses are? I looks like the "bullet" trains are non-smoking...but the bus isn't?? It may be worth the additional time and expense to ride a train vs bus due to the amount of smoke.

Not necessarily smoky at all. Usually there are multiple types of buses on this sort of route. The smaller local ones with operable windows, that take longer and stop off at smaller towns on the way--you may find smokers on these. Then there are the big express "luxury" type buses. Normally no smoking allowed on these. The trick is to make sure your departure time uses the express big bus. If you are a non-Chinese speaker, having the hotel call bus station information for you and writing down the best times will let you know what to ask for at the station. Maybe the hotel can help you get the tickets also--it's possible to buy your tickets the day before departure to lock in your preferred departure time. Not a bad idea since there are four of you. And most bus stations have no English spoken, so if you aren't a Chinese speaker and must buy yourself, have hotel write down in characters what you need so you can hand it to ticket seller to fulfill.

Not that I have ridden this bus, but haven ridden lots in China I'd say there isn't a lot of smoking on the buses. Not that I don't have a picture of the driver smoking when there was a big no smoking sign in the front of the bus.

Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about it to take train over bus because of smoke.

My bus experiences in China were all without smoky buses.

I took buses from:

Xiamen - Shantou

Shantou - Guangzhou

Guangzhou - Hong Kong

Hong Kong - Guangzhou

Shanghai - Suzhou - Hangzhou - Shanghai


YMMV but I thought the trains were more comfortable and more reliable due to traffic conditions and what not in bus rides.


My train rides in D and G were the same too.

Things are getting better in terms of smoking, I was chased away when my friends and I tried to smoke in a remote area of the bus terminal in Shantou. In Shantou!!

There are times when intercity buses make more sense than trains, and making a direct connection Hangzhou<-->Suzhou is one of those situations.

Might be a nice experience to travel on the HSR one way to experience
it and see a little of the countryside.

Not the same thrill as riding Beijing-Tianjin when it clocked out
at 350 km/h, but nonetheless fun.