Trains are the most convenient way to travel around the country. They go in almost all directions at a tremendous speed — up to 250-350 km /h.
One day a train sped past me faster than I could finish the phrase “wow speed”.
The ticket price depends on the distance and class. It is most convenient to travel by a fast train: it is much faster, and the service is like a good airline. There are no promo codes and discounts on tickets.
Foreigners are given tickets only at the box office. Even if you buy them in advance on the official website of the railway, where everything is in Chinese, you still have to come to the ticket office with your passport.
There are two types of ticket offices inside the station: round-the-clock and preliminary. If you buy or exchange a ticket the day before the departure of the train, you are in the round-the-clock.
The ticket offices can be found by the signs. Another option is to specify the location at the information desk. Get ready for a long queue of aggressive people: they don’t care that you are a foreigner who doesn’t know the local rules. For a Chinese, a place in the queue is a fortress for which he will fight with his elbows.
In order not to ask the cashier, I looked at the train schedule in advance and found out the cost of tickets in the China Train Booking app. Then she showed the desired train number in the application and bought a ticket.
Usually there are several railway stations in big cities. Any ticket will be sold at the ticket office, but it may turn out that the right train leaves from another station. For example, trains from Beijing to Shanghai depart from Beijing Nan and just Beijing stations. These are two different places. In order not to get confused, I advise you to buy tickets a couple of days in advance and check the location of the stations on the map. When I had to buy a ticket, I arrived at the station in two hours.
The boarding gate, also known as the gate, opens 20 minutes before the departure of the train. There they check the ticket and passport again. A passing train costs up to two minutes.
Planes. I was looking for flights to China on the “Skyscanner” aggregator. A one—way ticket costs an average of 13 thousand rubles, in both directions – from 18 thousand.
There are low-cost airlines in the country: Colorful Guizhou Airlines, China United Airlines, Jiangxi Air, Lucky Air, Ruili Airlines, Spring Airlines. I’ve never flown them. Some sites are only in Chinese, others do not get into the search results at all.
Usually at the airport, the inspection of things and customs control are fast, but the departure may be delayed due to smog or thunderstorms. Shanghai is especially famous for the cancellation of flights — please note if you plan a back-to-back flight.
During Chinese holidays, prices for air travel and queues at the airport increase 2-3 times. Once I flew to Hong Kong a few days before Chinese New Year, and even then at 5 a.m. there were traffic jams at the entrance to the airport. Be sure to put more time on the road — if only because a fifth of the world’s population lives in China.
If you are planning a flight to China from Beijing or another major city, be sure to check the arrival and departure airports. For example, in Beijing it is cheaper to fly from Nanyuan Airport in the south.
Rent a car. No English-language rental site finds available cars. In addition, intercity routes in China are paid, and the best navigation on the road is only through the Chinese-language Baidu Maps app.