If you want to travel around china, you will notice that the train is the cheapest way to do it. It is also a go way to meet and exchange experience with the Chinese.
To buy your ticket, you better do it in advance, especially if it is during the Chinese holidays. If you don’t speak Chinese you can ask hotel or travel agencies help you with the details. Depending on the trains, you can book a ticket from 5 to 10 days in advance. For a short distance trip, you can buy your ticket just before the departure.
For more information about the train schedules you can visit these two websites:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com (in English)
http://www.echinatravel.net (in French and Eglish)
4 train classes exist:
1st class bed : the soft sleeper (ruanwo 软卧)
Each cabin has a sliding door and only four beds. Air conditioning and plenty of storage space are all provided for in a soft sleeper cabin.
While relatively comfortable, the soft sleeper doesn’t quite merit the price, which is sometimes almost as much as flying.
2nd class bed : the hard sleeper (yingwo 硬卧)
The most common way for foreigners and middle-class Chinese to travel long distances is the hard sleeper class. Despite the name, hard sleepers are actually quite comfortable. A hard sleeper cabin on a Chinese train will consist of a six bed cabin, with three beds attached to the wall on either side. The cabin has no door but beds come with small lamps for reading at night.
1st class seat : the soft seat (ruanzuo 软卧)
For all intents and purposes, a soft seat resembles coach class on any major airline. This class of ticket is relatively rare and can usually only be found on short-distance, inter-city lines (such as the ride from Beijing to Tianjin). The price is a bit less than a soft sleeper.
2nd class seat : the hard seat (yingzuo 硬座)
For short distance rides (2 – 3 hours), a hard seat is a great option. However, for a cross-country journey, it’s best to give up the cash for a sleeper ticket. Sleeping on a hard seat can be next to impossible since there is nowhere to lie down, and conditions can be very unsanitary. During peak traveling times hard seats can be packed to the brim, making any trip more than a few hours miserable. Remember it is usually possible to upgrade a ticket to a sleeper (bupiao 补票) if the ride proves to be too rough.
