China's high-speed trains: how to book and ride them on an Australian passport

China’s high-speed rail network is the best way to move between its cities: Shanghai to Beijing in about four and a half hours, Shanghai to Suzhou in 25 minutes, city centre to city centre, with no airport at either end. It is also the part of a trip that confuses foreign visitors most, because the system was built around Chinese ID cards and phone numbers. Here is how it works for an Australian passport, in practice, from booking to the platform.

Train types

Trains are numbered by type, and the letter tells you the speed:

• G trains are the fastest, running up to 350 km/h on dedicated high-speed lines. Shanghai to Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou are mostly G trains.
• D trains are a little slower (up to 250 km/h) and sometimes cheaper, often on the same routes.
• C trains are short intercity shuttles.
• K, T and Z trains are the old conventional network: slow, overnight, with sleeper berths. Not relevant for most visitors, though the overnight sleeper is an adventure if you have time.

For a visitor, the rule is simple: take a G train where one exists.

Seat classes

• Second class is five seats across (3 + 2), comfortable, with a fold-down table and a power socket. Entirely fine for an hour to Hangzhou or Suzhou.
• First class is four across (2 + 2), wider seats, more legroom, a quieter carriage and a small snack. This is what we book on the Shanghai to Beijing run and it is worth the difference for four and a half hours.
• Business class is airline-style lie-flat seats, three across, at several times the first-class price. Pleasant, not necessary.

Children under 1.2 metres travel free without a seat (one per adult); 1.2 to 1.5 metres pay a child fare; taller children pay full fare. The rules are revised occasionally, so check at booking.

Booking with a foreign passport

Tickets go on sale about 15 days ahead (the window has changed several times; your booking app shows the current rule). Popular departures sell out: Friday and Sunday evenings, the first and last trains of the day, and anything near a public holiday. Book as soon as the window opens for those.

Three ways to book:

1. The official 12306 app or website. It has an English mode and accepts foreign passports for registration (passport number, name exactly as printed, date of birth). Registration can be fiddly, verification sometimes needs a Chinese phone number, and payment works best with Alipay or WeChat Pay linked to your card. Worth setting up if you are taking several trains.
2. Trip.com, the international arm of Ctrip. It books the same seats for a small service fee, takes Australian cards, sends confirmations in English, and has English-speaking support. For one or two journeys this is the easy route, and it is what most of our independent clients use.
3. Through your tour or guide. We book every train in our tours under your passport details before you fly, which is why we ask for passport scans at confirmation.

Whatever you use, the name on the booking must match the passport exactly, including middle names, or the gate staff will refuse it.

Your passport is the ticket

There are no paper tickets any more. Chinese travellers scan an ID card at the gates; foreign passport holders use the manned lane at the end of each row of gates, where staff scan the passport’s photo page and check the booking on their screen. This happens three times: at the station entrance, at the platform gate, and on exit at the other end. Keep the passport in your hand, not in a bag, from the station door until you are in your seat.

At the station

Chinese high-speed stations are airports without the check-in. The sequence:

1. Arrive 45 to 60 minutes early. There is a passport check and an X-ray screening of all bags at the entrance, like airport security but faster; liquids are allowed, knives and aerosols are not.
2. Find your waiting gate on the departure boards by train number (G7 and so on). The boards alternate between Chinese and English.
3. Boarding opens 15 to 20 minutes before departure and the gate closes five minutes before. The platform number is announced when boarding opens; follow the crowd through the gate and down the escalator.
4. Find your carriage by the numbers on the platform (carriage 05 stops at the sign for 05) and your seat by the number and letter on your booking (12F is a window seat).

Shanghai has three main stations and they are 40 minutes apart, so check the booking:

• Shanghai Hongqiao (next to Hongqiao domestic airport, metro lines 2, 10 and 17) handles most G trains to Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Yiwu. Enormous; allow extra time to walk.
• Shanghai Railway Station (metro lines 1, 3 and 4) handles some Suzhou and Nanjing services and the conventional trains.
• Shanghai South serves the south-west and is rarely used by visitors.

Beijing’s high-speed trains from Shanghai arrive at Beijing South (metro lines 4 and 14), 25 minutes from the centre.

Luggage

There is no checked baggage. You carry everything on and lift it into the overhead racks (big enough for a cabin bag) or stand it in the luggage space at the end of each carriage (big enough for a full-size suitcase, first come first served). Two medium bags per person is comfortable; three large suitcases for a family is a struggle. Porters with trolleys exist at the big stations and charge a small fee. There is no enforced weight limit for ordinary luggage, but the entrance X-ray will stop you for knives, scissors over a certain length, aerosols and lighters beyond a couple.

On board

Carriages are clean, quiet and smooth; you can stand a coin on the window ledge at 300 km/h. There are power sockets under or between the seats (Chinese two-pin and three-pin, the same as Australian three-pin), hot water dispensers at the carriage ends for instant noodles and tea, both Western and squat toilets, and a dining car with a basic menu and a trolley that comes through with snacks. Most people bring food from the station, where there are bakeries and convenience stores. Announcements are in Chinese and English. The trains leave on time to the minute, and the doors do not wait.

Typical journeys from Shanghai

Fares change with the season and the class; as a rough guide, Shanghai to Beijing in first class costs about the same as a discount domestic flight in Australia, and Shanghai to Suzhou in second class costs less than a Melbourne day pass.

Train or plane for Shanghai to Beijing?

Train, every time. Four and a half hours in a first-class seat against two hours in the air plus three hours at airports, with the stations in the middle of both cities and no weather delays. Flights win only if a very cheap fare lines up and you are staying near an airport. Our Shanghai to Beijing tour uses the train for exactly this reason, and our Beijing itinerary starts at Beijing South.

Day trips without any of this

If you would rather not manage apps, passports and platforms on holiday, a day guide with a private car takes you to Suzhou or Hangzhou door to door, and the guide books and handles the train if you want to ride it one way for the experience. On our tours every ticket is booked before you fly and the guide walks you to the seat.