I already told you about the Ctrip option. As much as I dislike being forced to buy their insurance, Y20 is a lot less than other booking services charge.

Specifics:
2 G trains daily Beijing-Nanning. G529, trip time 13:38, travels 7:47-21:25, and G421, trip time 13:32, travels 9:05-22:37.
Second class seat 917 yuan 5 jiao, first class seat 1383 yuan, business class seat 2863 yuan 5 jiao.
For comparison: 3 T trains daily. 2 travel via Guilin for 24...26 hours, both leave and arrive in evening - T5 travels 15:48-17:30, T285 18:17-18:03. T285 is sleeper only, T5 has hard seats at 268 yuan 5 jiao. Upper hard sleepers 455 yuan 5 jiao, lower soft sleepers 751 yuan 5 jiao. The third, T289, detours via Wuzhou and travels for 31 hours, 22:07-5:11. Upper hard sleeper 483 yuan 5 jiao, supposedly offers deluxe soft sleeper at 1478 yuan 5 jiao.

I'm not surprised that those prices are steep because we all know that they are based on distance (fixed rate per km depending on the speed of the train), but this is yet another example of a route that is too long for G trains to pencil. It's almost always possible to get plane tickets for less than Y1000, and no matter how bad the delay is, it's safe to say that flying is much faster than 14 hours.

Shijiazhuang-Nanning: 3 G trains daily (2 from Beijing and G423 originating at Shijiazhuang), trip time 12:18-12:23, departure 8:00-10:19, arrival 20:20-22:37, price second class 826 yuan 5 jiao
Zhengzhou-Nanning: the 3 G trains from Shijiazhuang, trip time 10:16-10:31, departure 9:58-12:21, arrival as above, second class seat 675 yuan
Wuhan-Nanning: 5 G trains daily - the 3 from Shijiazhuang, and G431 and G433 originating at Wuhan, trip time 7:53-8:23, departure 7:06-15:14, arrival 15:10-23:07, second class seat 457 yuan
Changsha-Nanning: the 5 G trains from Wuhan, trip time 6:14-6:33, departure 8:42-16:53, arrival 15:10-23.07, second class seat 293 yuan

How do the planes Changsha-Nanning compare?

Y345 is the lowest I'm seeing; Y390-Y450 is more widely available. I've never flown the route, but if I had to go from Nanning to Changsha, I'd probably fly once in order to size up how miserable the delay is.

Wuyu Airport
 

Wuyu Airport is supposed to have been moved from terminal 1 to terminal 2.

How can Wuyu Airport now be reached?

Much like the subway, t2 was half built when I first went to nn 1.5 years ago and appears almost exactly the same today.

Is your second question some sort of riddle? We use cars to reach the airport.

Wuzhou-Guangzhou high speed railway opened!
 

There are 14 daily D trains Nanning-Guangzhou. The train that arrives in 3:19 is D201 and makes no stops. The other 13 take from 3:55 to 4:30.
Price Nanning East-Guangzhou second class 169 yuan 5 jiao, first class 202 yuan 5 jiao.
The 6 K trains take from 12:21 to 15:25. Price hard seat 105 yuan, hard sleeper 184 to 196 yuan, soft sleeper 285 to 297 yuan.

How convenient is Nanning East station?

Also, there is now a train Shanghai-Nanning. G1501, travel time 11:34. Departs 10:06, arrives 21:40. Price second class 767 yuan 5 jiao, first class 1178 yuan 5 jiao, business class 2378 yuan.

moondog, this wasn't you, right? ;)

http://news.china.com.cn/2014-12/22/...t_34374807.htm

Of the 14 daily D trains Guangzhou-Nanning, only 2 serve Nanning. The other 12 only serve Nanning East station.
No D trains between Nanning and Shenzhen either.

Haha. I'm back in Shanghai now, and don't drive a Lambo. My next Nanning visit is slotted for the week of Jan 5, and the goal is to get the troops up to speed in less than 3 days.

In view of your arrival time - 21:40 at Nanning East Station - how easy will it be to reach central Nanning at that time of night?
The two G trains from Beijing also now arrive at Nanning East (21:06 and 22:40).

I haven't been to Nanning East Station yet, but it shouldn't take more than 40 minutes to go from there to anywhere else in town during the evening.

As exciting as these new trains are, we're still going to fly there from Shanghai and Beijing, but if Shenzhen trains pop up on the schedule, we'll avail of them.

When the subway will be in service (hopefully in 2016) Line 1 will connect Nanning East Station and the Railway Station.

For the moment I can ask a friend (she lives in Nanning) about the situation right now.

The distance Nanning-Nanning South, by railway, is 11 km. That distance is covered by 1 train daily.
There is finally a high speed train Shenzhen-Nanning: 1 daily, G4232. Travel time 4:38, price second class 243 yuan 5 jiao, first class 302 yuan, business class 706 yuan.