Trains in China
 

I will be traveling from Suzhou-Hefei-Wuhan-Changsha on trains and I had a few questions:

1) Should I book train tickets with Ctrip?
2) Is there any tangible difference between 1st and 2nd class except seats? I have 2 luggages and a bag so I'm worried that I won't have enough space in the overhead area.
3) When should I book my tickets? I won't be in China until May.

1) It's a good choice if you do not have Chinese friends or acquaintances who can book ahead with their Chinese ID card

2) I would either book a soft sleeper carriage or 1st class to avoid unnecessary hassle and stress. That includes more storage room for luggage than the standard 2nd class

3) When I travelled on a sleeper and then later on a daytime HSR train in mid March, the tickets for both were sold out about a week before the travel date.

If you are not travelling strictly within the Beijing - Shanghai or Nanjing - Shanghai HSR corridors, better book tickets 7-14 days ahead to be on the safe side.

I've booked trains with ctrip without any problem, save one: once the official 12306 site showed a seat available but ctrip showed the train sold out. Ctrip is an online DIY process, so if you need some hand-holding then use one of the agents that book by email, who tend to be a bit more expensive but can deal with questions you might have.

I'd book now for May travel, especially early May and especially if your dates are pretty fixed.

For high-speed rail, I don't think first-class is worth the cost.

Ctrip is fine for booking train tickets.
If you should travel early may I would book in advance.
May 1 is a national holiday and the most people are off work for a few days.

Anybody can book ahead. The use of a Chinese id card is irrelevant, the friend needs to book with your passport.
Ticket availability depends on a number of factor. You can check availability on one of the many agent's website.
Ctrip is not bad but their schedules are no curent. They still don't show the Futian station that opened over 2 months ago.

Ctrip is OK for booking ahead.

If you arrive in Suzhou earlier, I'd probably recommend just getting the tickets from a local travel agency selling train tickets (+5Y) or at the station itself. Unless it's around one of the major travel seasons like 1st May.

On some lines, 1st class does offer a snack onboard (nothing fancy, though) - and obviously the space for luggage (as well as your personal space ;) ) is much better. I'd always book 1st class, to be honest, when it's available. As you said, you're travelling heavy: Get first class! Yes it's more expensive, but as long as you want a comfortable ride.. get it.

As soon as possible. With trains, there is no rule such as 30/45 days as there are with airline tickets. Get it when you reach China if that means still days or longer ahead. If you're arriving into China JUST before your train ride (I doubt so, from what I understand) booking with Ctrip is a good idea.

Last but not least: 2nd class on high speed trains isn't bad if you're a slim/average person. I've done it many times, even with "normal" luggage.

But then I don't have to turn around every Yuan, so I'll gladly pay a bit extra for much more space especially on longer rides.

Some years ago, I've made some "K" trains (I think) - local K trains. 2nd class. It was fun :D
But I've grown older.. and while it's fun for someone in their early 20s, probably less so when you've put a 3 in front.. or even more..

This website is quite good at listing options (while still being advertisement for their own service)

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/chin...et-service.htm

What´s with the plan to adjust the train timetables?

Just heard the pre-sale has been adjusted temporarily at march 14.
Only tickets before may 12 are available.
Tickets dated after may 12 can be booked just at the mid of april.

Just heard about it. :confused:

I just checked the ticket availability for your routes in 10 days (after the long week-end as it would distord the answer) on china-diy-travel.com as they have real-time information:
Suzhou-Hefei: a lot of trains but I am surprised to see quite a few are sold out already.
Hefei-Wuhan: also many trains, only a few are sold out
Wuhan-Changsha: even more trains, several are sold out.
My recommendation would be to pre-book the first trip as you may arrive just before getting on that trains. Then assuming that the other rides are several days later. I would book them ahead myself after landing in China. However if you want a precise schedule and are not trying to just save a few bucks, then you may as well pre-book everything.
I find that 2nd class is perfectly fine but if you are not on tight budget, the price difference for going first class is only $5 to $10 for these trains.

Right. That was announced a couple of weeks ago. I think that you can still place your order with an agent. They will buy when released. It will probably quite a stampede when tickets for one month are all released at the same time.

My last encounter with Chinese trains they wanted the ID of everyone traveling. Multiple people with ID didn't make up for the fact that my wife hadn't brought her passport. (This was an unplanned trip.) With considerable difficulty they accepted her US ID card. If she didn't speak Chinese I very much doubt we would have gotten on that train.

The tickets were not cross-checked against ID when boarding, though--not that that would have been all that informative, anyway, both of our tickets simply had our last name on them. The ticket seller didn't know how to cope with foreign passports or ID.

This is still different handled in chinese cities.

For example in Nanning both train stations handle it different.

When I´m in Antu, Yanbian nobody wanna see my ID when I buy a ticket to travel within Yanbian (just for tickets going outside of Yanbian).

In Ningbo nobody checked my ID once, just as I was on the train they wanted to see my ticket and ID (it was a night sleeper to Beijing).

My recent experience is that you need your passport at the ticket office when picking up or buying tickets and then again at the station entrance when the ticket -- which has your name and part of your passport number printed on it -- is matched against your ID. This seems a pretty uniform procedure these days, at least at large stations.

My experience is that when buying tickets anywhere but at the station they usually want to see your ID / passport when buying tickets, but they're accepting a copy or even just the number when you don't have it with you. After all, they're making their 5 RMB no matter if you are allowed to board or not.

I think I've not had an ID check when boarding, _but_ they run ID/Passport check in the train itself. That was on longer nonstop rides, though, where the staff had time to check each and every passengers ID without being in a hurry. Having that many train staff certainly helps doing such personal check.

That was my example with Nanning.

At the old station they check the ticket and the ID at the station entrance, at NN Dong they just wanna see your ticket at the entrance, later when you wanna enter the waiting area they check both.

Same city, different handling.

Thanks for the info everyone! I'll probably book first-class tickets with Ctrip in early April as some fares like Wuhan - Changsha on May 18 seem to still not have been made available yet as it shows up as sold out.

Once I purchase the tickets, where would I pick them up in China?