Chinanooga Choo-Choo: Navigating China's trains

Beijing Train Station

Trains in China are easy to use once you get the hang of them.  My first acquaintance with 
Chinese trains in Beijing two years ago was rather funny, but was a teaching moment.

We were staying at the Raffles Hotel in the city, arguably one of Beijing's finest.  Our next destination was Datong, and we decided that train was the best way to get there.  Trains linking the two places are not high speed and the trip time is six hours. That didn't seem too bad to us and we asked the hotel concierge about getting tickets.  He said that it was easiest for him to get them for us. That was the last time I asked a hotel concierge for a train ticket.

The taxi driver, for some reason, did not drop us off in front of the station. My guess is that traffic was heavy and he didn't want to stand in line. Instead he let us out a few blocks away where we were met by an army of porters screaming and shoving each other for the job of carrying our suitcases to the terminal.  Once inside of it, we navigated the maze and made our way to the gate.  There we saw a number of people buying tiny plastic stools and sitting on them, many of them smoking, something I have never seen again in a Chinese train station. I discovered the reason for the tiny stools a short while later. The Beijing station offered unique cultural insights and experiences.

We expected that our train car would look like this-

First Class Car, Shanghai to Hangzhou, China

Instead, we found something more like this-

Third-class Hard Seat Train Car

Our concierge, had booked us on a third-class, hard-seat car. Plus, there were a good number of folks seated on the tiny plastic stools in the open spaces at the ends of the car.

I, as an undergrad Anthropology major, thought I had died and gone to heaven.  It was straight out of a National Geographic episode.  Our seats were at a table like the one in the photo.  There was a metal container on the table for the chicken bones (all train stations sell  chickens sealed in plastic bags like potato chips) and sunflower seed shells (just spit them into the container).  My husband didn't share my sense at the wonder of it all,   sitting there complaining about his back and the hard seat from start to finish; he was ready to go back to Beijing and take the next flight out.   The people around us were as welcoming and friendly as they could be without a common language;  this train trip remains one of my treasured memories.

When we arrived in Datong, there was another fight over us and our luggage, among the taxi drivers at the exit.  I found one who was polite and told the others to get lost.  We loved Datong with its  incomparable Yungang Grottoes and, in fact, all of Datong; my husband soon forgot about the train.

In Datong, we ran into two Dutch women who had had a very relaxing and pleasant train  trip to Datong, in a sleeper car.  This was something our concierge had not mentioned to us. Perhaps he thought a six-hour train ride did not necessitate a sleeper, but they said it was really pleasant and restful.  

It helps to know your options when traveling, so here is a link to everything you could want to know about China train travel- https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/types.htm
There are so many options, although not all of them may not be available on any particular train route.  However, China train websites and apps like China Train Booking or China Trains will clearly spell-out options that are available. Doing your homework is essential before you take off for China.

There are a few more things it helps to know about train travel in China and I will continue the discussion in my next post.