Beijing Travel Forum

I need a Z train soft sleeper for 2 people, from Beijing to Xi'an on May 6th. I arrive in Beijing on Saturday morning, May 3. Will this be enough time to buy the soft sleeper for the Z train or should i suck it up and pay higher prices on the chinatripadvisor website? I also have to be on a train from Xi'an to Beijing on May 9th. Any help would be appreciated.

Contact John (johnqingg2004@yahoo.com.cn), he should be able to help you with the Xi'an -- Beijing train tickets, and also to offer a contact to help with the Beijing -- Xi'an train tickets as well.

Hi, I can only speak from my experience, just over 2 years ago I arrived in Beijing and asked the hotel if they could organise my train tickets to Xian, exactly the same tickets as you. I was staying in Beijing for 6 nights and they said it was not a problem and would get it done and it was not a rush, in the end it was done just a couple of days before you wanted to travel, without a hitch. At our hotel the man who organised it for us also got his Wife (who speaks english) to go with us in the taxi and take us to where we needed to be, escort us to the platform and into the train. We were not asked to pay for this service but we gave her the return taxi fare plus extra. We were truly grateful for her help especially after arriving at the station with hundreds of people going in all directions. She took us to a waiting room for foreign tourists. We did get a shock when we were taken to the correct carriage by her to find 2 young men allready there, luckily they spoke quite good english and even though they were there first volunteered to take the top bunks for this we were truly grateful - I was travelling with my girlfriend who is 61 and I was - 55 - so you might understand our gratitude.

The help we received from our hotel was wonderful.

The bunks were very comfortable, however if I do it again, and I hope I can, I would book 4 bunks and leave 2 unused, I forget what we paid but it was not a lot compared to Australian prices.

Another tip would be, if you want to have a meal in the dining section then as soon as you have setteled go to the dining area and grab a table, we went when we heard that you would now be able to have a meal and when we got there had to wait for a spare table. Other tourists who came after us had quite a long wait. There were a couple of tables where the occupants were really setteled in for a good night so the turnover was not as you would expect. You could say that was bad luck that night however they were not tourists and seemed used to taking the train, I had the feeling that it was not a one off and were possibly regular users of the service and found it better than trying to socalise in the compartment.

We had a good trip and hope you have the same.

Christine

Thank you for responding. I really appreciate the tip about the dining car. I tried to go thru my hostel, but the manager said he could not help me in this situation. I will try to use your contact Ellyse, thank you.

You're welcome, hope John comes through for you!

i used that train 2 years ago we bought our tickets on the same day. if you have a soft sleeper ticket there is actually a seperate waiting area for you to sit in at beijing station. you will also be first to get on the train we had a berth for 2 people with a private toilet and sink