Shanghai - Beijing: high-speed train. Rail flights Beijing Shanghai railway distance
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High-speed trains are an ideal option for those who dream of seeing the real China, but prefer to travel without extra costs. China's high-speed rail system connects more than 300 cities, including China's ancient capital Beijing, financial hub Shanghai, and high-tech hub Guangzhou. China boasts the world's largest high-speed rail network, with a total length of more than 16 thousand kilometers. Traveling around China at speeds of up to 300 km per hour is convenient, fast and inexpensive! Tickets for the high speed train (D) or high speed train (G) can be purchased 60 days in advance or as little as 35 minutes before departure. Plan your route and book cheap train tickets now!
Between Beijing and Shanghai there is one of the fastest trains in the world, with a speed of 350 km/h. Travel time takes only 4 hours 28 minutes. There is also a “simpler” train with a speed of 250 km/h. We decided to take the high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai and tell about this adventure.
The train departs from the railway station in the center of Beijing. Trains run every day, with several additional trains running on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Beijing-Shanghai high-speed trains differ by category, i.e. by letter, for example, G trains reach a speed of 350 km/h (the number begins with the letter “G”) and have 2nd, 1st and business class. Category D trains run at a speed of 250 km/h (the number starts with “D”) and have soft sleepers and 2nd class seats. The simplest train between Beijing and Shanghai is category "T" - the classic sleeper train (T109/T110) has seats and recumbents.
Beijing train station
Almost all Beijing-Shanghai high-speed trains depart from Beijing Nan South Station, 6 km southwest of central Beijing. There are also several flights to Shanghai from Beijing's main central station.
Shanghai station
Most Beijing-Shanghai trains arrive at the new Shanghai Hongqiao station, 18 km from the center of Shanghai next to the old airport. Several flights go to Shanghai Central Station (Shanghai Zhan).
Distance Beijing-Shanghai by train
The distance between Beijing and Shanghai by high-speed rail is 1318 km. A new high-speed line opened in 2011.
How to get to Beijing South Station
Beijing South Station (Beijing Nan) is located 6 km southeast of Tiananmen Square. You can easily get there by metro for 5 yuan (metro cost for 1 trip is 40 minutes). Or you can take a taxi, the cost of a taxi from the center of Beijing is about 35 yuan, the journey time is 30 minutes. When entering the station, you need to go through a metal detector and place your luggage on the belt.
Finding the Beijing-Shanghai train is very easy. There are large electronic boards in the station building, they show the train number, destination, departure time and platform number in English and Chinese.
Tariffs for high-speed trains Beijing-Shanghai
Beijing Shanghai train: prices for category “G”
2nd class – 553 yuan
1st class - 933 yuan
business class - 1748 yuan
Beijing Shanghai train: prices for category “D”
2nd class – 309 yuan
1st class - 615 yuan
Beijing Shanghai train: prices for category “T”
2nd class – 305 yuan
1st class - 477 yuan
business class - 880 yuan
China has dynamic pricing. In sleeping cars, upper bunks are cheaper. Discounts are available for children. Chinese Railways opens sales 60 days before travel. There are a lot of Chinese people, so their trains are often crowded, but there are so many flights on the Beijing-Shanghai route that you can buy a ticket on the day of departure or at least the next day.
Train Beijing-Shanghai
The fastest trains between Beijing and Shanghai in China are of 3 types: Chinese CRH380A (300 km/h), German CRH380B (also 300 km/h) and the new 350 km/h CRH400 Fuxing.
CRH400 Fuxing is the world's fastest passenger train. Since September 21, 2017, they have been traveling at speeds of up to 350 km/h. Travel time 4 hours 28 minutes - 4 hours 34 minutes.
CRH380B are trains developed in Germany by Siemens, the same company that developed our Sapsan aircraft. Similarities with them and with the German ICE3 are visible to the naked eye. Speed 300 km/h.
CRH380A - these “Chinese” also go at a speed of 300 km/h. Locally produced trains.
Which class of Beijing-Shanghai train should I choose?
On Chinese trains, all seats swivel (except those in the excursion areas) and face each other. 2nd class seats are the cheapest, there is little space and no power sockets. 1st class seats are much more spacious, there are 2 rows of 2 seats per carriage. There is a power outlet at the base of the seat for each pair of seats. Business class seats on the Beijing-Shanghai CRH380B high-speed train fully recline at the touch of a button, creating a full-size bed. Business class is expensive, even by Western standards. Meals are provided in business class (each passenger is given a lunch box with food).
When visiting China, there is a great opportunity to visit several cities, for example, there is the Beijing Shanghai high-speed train. In general, high-speed train routes in China are developing very quickly.
So, Beijing Shanghai high speed train: the distance between the cities is about 1300 kilometers, the travel time is on average 5 hours, the maximum speed reaches 300 km/h. High-speed train service on this route opened in 2011.
The train from Beijing departs from Beijing South Railway Station, the same station is a stop on the 4th metro line (turquoise). Since the station is very large, it is better to arrive early. The train arrives in Shanghai at Shanghai Hongqiao Station.
Beijing Shanghai High Speed Train Schedule You can check directly at the station, since there are no problems with purchasing tickets. The first train leaves at around 7 am, and the last one at around 9 pm. By clicking on the link you can see the Beijing Shanghai train schedule and cost, as well as look at other directions. Schedule of other trains in China.
Train schedule at the railway station
Tickets for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train are of several classes, the most affordable is second class. One way ticket costs about $100, which is comparable to the price of an airplane, but the train has much more living space. Having purchased tickets, do not forget that they will also be useful to us when exiting the train.
Second class
First grade
Business Class
There are comfortable seats inside the train; while moving, you can calmly walk around the cars and go to the buffet car, where you can have a normal meal. Servants of drinks and all kinds of snacks periodically pass through the train itself, so there are no problems with food on the train. A set lunch, which is served throughout the carriages, costs 45 yuan.
As I wrote earlier, I didn’t want to take the high-speed express, which covers the distance between Beijing and Shanghai of 1,390 km in five hours, since airplanes are excluded from my trip.
There were many options, the simplest was 5 hours on the super express G.
But by chance we discovered an option on a T-type train, a Luxuary soft sleeper seat, 4,500 rubles, an analogue of our SV, only half the price (hello Russian Railways) and twice as comfortable as it turned out later (hello Russian Railways again). Departure at 19-30, arrival in Shanghai in the morning at 9-30. Since the cost is the same as staying in a hotel for a day or spending the night on a train, naturally I chose the option to see what a purely Chinese SV is!
Buying a ticket, as usual, was accompanied by certain difficulties, but only mentally. I arrived at the station by metro (1 station from my hotel, 10 minutes), found the ticket office, naturally 0 information in English, stood in the middle of the hall and said loudly: “Hey, guys. Anybody speak English here?”
After 10 minutes, the ticket for the desired train was in my pocket and the problem was so easily solved, about which hundreds of pages have been written on the topic “Oh my God, how to buy a train ticket in China?”)))
But first I’ll tell you about the categories of Chinese trains:
G trains are the fastest and fastest trains with the fewest stops and are the most expensive. This is seating only. What’s the point of making recumbents if it’s only a 5-hour drive?)) They accelerate to 400 km/h or more. For example, such a train flies the Beijing-Shanghai distance in 5 and a half hours and costs in this message from 2500 rubles (2nd class). The fastest train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev, accelerating to 486 km/h!
Then some train in China crashed on an overpass, and the speed seemed to be limited to 300 or 350 km/h, who knows, correct me. There are no analogues in Russia
They are also very fast, apparently up to 250 km/h. They have a little more stops and go a little slower than G trains. They have both lying and sitting places. For example, a train travels the same Beijing-Shanghai distance in 8-9 hours and costs from 408 yuan. Our analogue Sapsan
T-train
Many stops, speed up to 150 km/h. Our analogue is fast trains with the fewest stops, but the comparison is in favor of Chinese ones. I took this train from Beijing to Shanghai
Well, K-trains are more like our trains in terms of speed from point A to point B. I will take this train from Shanghai to Kunming.
In general, Russian Railways nervously smokes on the sidelines. Below you will see why.
Beijing Station
Do you see a small queue on the right? This is the entrance to the station, tickets only, they also asked me for my passport. The inside is free and very beautiful, because not a single visitor without a ticket will get there, and rightly so.
I entered the carriage
When I walked past my carriage, I looked at the ordinary 4-seater compartments in the windows, well, I think I was deceived.
But it turned out that the Chinese train does not have 1st class CARS, but SEATS. Those. our carriage consisted of one 1st class compartment and the rest 2nd class, that is, my compartment had two seats, and the rest had 4 seats, like our compartments. This is how the problem of filling trains is easily solved. Our SVs run empty, but the Chinese don’t.
Photo. Well, that's cool isn't it? Sofa, armchair 
Hygiene supplies 
Amenities only for our coupe 
Now attention, the train is 3rd class in terms of speed according to the Chinese classification. But...I deliberately turned on the navigator and looked at the speed. Accelerated up to 150 km/h. At the same time, the ride is very smooth and very silent. RZhdeeee hello to you again.
At 21-20 I came to explore the restaurant car. I keep coming in, I think it’s strange, I sat down with some guys. Everyone is staring at me.
My aunt brought me a menu.
Chose something. My aunt explains to me that they close at 22-00, but I see that there is still half an hour left, I explain to her that I want to eat. She doesn’t leave, she keeps saying something in Chinese. I explain to her again, she again says something. No one around speaking English. Finally, I get tired of it all, I slam it and say: I want to eat, period.
She apparently realized that I would not leave here and that the matter threatened with an international scandal and sadly trudged away.
After 5 minutes, lo and behold, they bring me Chinese meatballs and vodka.
They taste disgusting, but I wanted to eat
The men opposite me were drinking tea
And here is a revelation for me. I see the waitress handing them some kind of coupons with numbers on them: 22-00 - 5-00. Somehow we managed to find out that this right is in the restaurant car at night, because they don’t even have seats. To be honest, I somehow felt uneasy. I really don’t know what this has to do with, whether it’s poverty or the general lack of seats on Chinese trains.
I somehow immediately went to my place, my part of the train was blocked off so that the proletariat would not get into the expensive carriages, I began to rattle, of course they opened the door for me and I went to sleep in the “bourgeois” part of the train in deep thought.
I went to smoke in the vestibule. Let me see, I think, I'll take a look in the common toilet.
I looked in. Asian style toilet.
What could it be?
Yes, it's just a keyhole for a key))
There's a stinker hanging on the wall
While I was wandering around the restaurants, some bespectacled student moved in with me, but he soon got off at some station
The western coast of China is very populated. It seemed to me that we were always driving through the same big city
In the morning I looked out the window. The train again rushed from city to city, around only residential areas and industrial zones, and this continued until Shanghai.
The nature outside the window changed dramatically overnight and was similar to our Black Sea one.
I went out, the sun was shining, +14, hello Shanghai!
Have you ever wondered at what maximum speed you have ever moved across our mortal coil? Our journalist Vasily Larin once reached 250 km/h on a test track in Germany - few people drove a car faster. However, many have experienced faster moments. 270-280 km/h - this is the take-off speed of most jet airliners. It would seem that, if we exclude any races for records, standard earthly speeds end there. No, they're just getting started! An A+C correspondent was convinced of this after visiting Shanghai.
RACE WITH AN AIRPLANE
The fact that you can travel from point A to point B over a distance of more than 1000 km by train as quickly as by plane is a long-standing dream (and even plans!) of large railway companies. But only in China is this implemented in practice. Today, the journey by rail (1320 km) between the two main cities of the Celestial Empire - the capital Beijing and the largest financial center Shanghai - takes 4 hours 48 minutes. The plane flies for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Knowing both cities well, I hypothetically calculated the time it would take to get from the center of Shanghai (People's Square) to the center of Beijing (Tiananming Square). Taking into account the savings on various pre/post flight procedures and the fact that the train arrives in Beijing almost in the very center, in the case of the railway it will take 6 hours, and by plane – 5 and a half. The difference of half an hour is not significant. Indeed, in a situation close to us - on the route Irkutsk - Krasnoyarsk, we will get a ratio (taking into account, again, all transfers and procedures) 21 hours and 4 hours, respectively. As they say - feel the difference.
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| The first thing that strikes you in the train departure hall of Hongqiao Station is its scale and sterility. |
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| Boarding the fastest train in the world is extremely democratic - the whole procedure is limited only by showing the ticket at the entrance and is more like entering the subway. Security control - only at the entrance to the terminal |
PROJECT "HARMONY"
Everything about the project of the longest high-speed railway in the world, “Harmony” (that’s what the Beijing-Shanghai highway was called), is amazing. The cost of the project is $32 billion (for comparison, holding the Olympics in Sochi will cost Russia $6 billion). Even for China, with its geopolitical ambitions and government funding opportunities, this is the most expensive project in history. All 1,320 km of the highway run exclusively along the overpasses of the new line (there are also 22 tunnels on the line with a total length of 16 km). Unlike other high-tech projects, this one is almost 100 percent purely Chinese, although it could not have done without the advisory assistance of the “monsters” - German Siemens, Japanese Kawasaki and Canadian Bombardier. CRH380 locomotives and trains are produced in China, moreover, they are planned to be exported to other Asian countries.
The line can transport up to 220 thousand passengers daily (that is, in just over two days - the entire population of Irkutsk) and theoretically, trains can run at the frequency of the metro - every 5 minutes (this happens in the morning and evening).
The high-speed line allows not only to earn money from passengers, but also has a huge economic effect - it has relieved congestion on the old line, which is now used mainly by freight trains and night sleeper trains. This is cheaper, and for some it is more convenient (got in in the evening and got out in the morning), besides, express trains (currently there are 28 trains in each direction) depart only during the daytime - from 7 am to 6 pm.
SPEED COMFORT TEST
Just a couple of weeks ago, circumstances required me to go to Shanghai. On the way there, on a Chinese website (through which, as a rule, experienced travelers book air tickets and hotels in China), I came across a discount air ticket from Beijing to Shanghai (for only $100/3,200 rubles). But back to Beijing (from where there is a direct flight to Irkutsk), it was decided to return by high-speed train at all costs.
In order not to tempt fate, it was decided to buy tickets online – on the Travel China Guide website (). However, it will not be possible to do this in two clicks of the mouse, as with air tickets (entered your bank card details and received a ticket by email). I had to enter into a long correspondence with the manager of Travel China Guide (in total I received 12 letters from him!). We had to pay for the ticket through the Western Union system (i.e., go to the bank), and the “receipts” themselves could only be obtained at the hotel upon arrival in Shanghai (they were waiting for us at the reception desk as soon as we arrived at the hotel).
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| All 1320 km can be devoted to contemplating the varied Chinese landscapes |
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| The entire high-speed line runs exclusively on specially built overpasses |
The entrance to the platform was opened only 20 minutes before departure - barely enough time to conduct a photo shoot. The train started moving and... What can I tell you - no special impressions - no overloads, no exorbitant noise levels. The cabin in economy class is reminiscent of that on an airplane, with two important differences: the distance between the seats is much greater and there is an electrical outlet, which came in very handy for me. The trip was barely enough time to “clean up” the Shanghai photo shoot on the laptop. Just like on an airplane, there are stewards on the train who serve drinks and snacks (of course, there is no dining car). Modern toilet, drinking water. There are first and business class sections - again, comparable in comfort to airline ones.
The speed of 300 km/h (and, judging by the scoreboard, it stays that way most of the way) is absolutely not felt. No vibrations: a full cup of coffee will not give up a drop during the entire journey. Quiet: noise level of 61 dB (less than inside a car at low speed). Light “turbulence” occasionally occurs when two trains pass each other. This lasts literally a moment, you won’t even notice the outline of oncoming traffic, because the combined speed is 600 km/h. The picture in the panoramic window is quite comfortable; moreover, you get the feeling that you are watching some kind of educational channel like National Geographic: Chinese cities and pastoral landscapes flash in the “frame”. For the most part, they are perfectly manicured agricultural fields, in which thousands of people swarm. For the first time in China, I realized that this is largely not an urban, but still an agricultural country.
Along the way, the train makes only one minute stop - in Nanjing, with a population of 8 million, where the composition of passengers is renewed by a third. And exactly 4 hours 48 minutes later (second per second!) arrives at Beijing South Station.
Before the trip, I couldn’t wrap my head around how a train could move faster than the speed of an airplane taking off from the ground. When we got to the platform in Beijing, there was even more confusion - could it really be that now, in less than 5 hours, we had covered 1320 km on the ground? The speed with which the Chinese are moving towards their bright future does not fit in my mind personally. Apparently, we are seriously behind them in this.
PRE-FLIGHT PREPARATIONChinese reality teaches us to count distance not in kilometers, but in minutes. The Maglev high-speed train, connecting Shanghai Pudong International Airport with the city center, reaches a maximum speed of 430 km/h and covers 30 kilometers in 7 minutes (subway or expressway on the same route takes 40 minutes). Today it is the fastest train in the world. Maglev (maglev – magnetic levitation – “magnetic plane”) is one of two commercial lines in the world that use magnetic levitation technology - the train moves above the surface of a specially built track. Like many other high-tech projects in China, the line was built and designed by a foreign company, the German Transrapid, and launched in 2002. True, it does not bring any commercial benefit - the final station is somewhat inconveniently located, and the tickets for the Chinese turned out to be a little expensive (200-250 rubles). The prospects for the road are foggy - it was planned to extend it to another Shanghai airport, Hongqiao (then it would penetrate the entire city center), but so far the project has been frozen for many reasons, including due to the incompletely studied impact of electromagnetic waves on residents of nearby houses. In many ways, Maglev is now one of the many tourist attractions in Shanghai, which has a population of 20 million. It is among foreigners that it evokes more emotions - the Chinese even look at those photographing the train with some bewilderment (probably, this is how we would perceive it if someone started doing a photo shoot of our train). In the evening, Maglev speed is limited to 301 km/h. When we arrived in Shanghai, this is exactly what happened. I couldn’t miss the chance to drive at a speed that was prohibitive for the surface of the Earth, so I specially drove in both directions (metro station - airport) during the day. Impression? The train runs almost silently and extremely smoothly. The maximum speed lasts literally for a couple of tens of seconds - the train accelerates for two minutes, and slows down for five minutes (using the force of aerodynamic drag). Even at maximum speed, due to the fact that the line runs two dozen meters above the ground, you can admire the panorama, although the picture in the window flashes unusually quickly. Some semblance of thrill occurs only in turns - somewhat (albeit very vaguely) reminiscent of a roller coaster. A much stronger feeling of euphoria comes from contact with a future that is distant for the rest of humanity. |
The Beijing-Shanghai line holds two of the most important world records - the longest high-speed route in the world (1320 km) with the highest average speed (about 300 km/h). On European and Japanese highways, speeds of 280-300 km/h are achieved only in limited areas. The Russian Sapsan train on the Moscow-St. Petersburg section moves at a speed of 200 km/h, reaching a maximum speed of 250 km/h on the short Okulovka-Malaya Vishera section. |
* By 2013, the length of high-speed roads in China will reach 12,000 km, most of which will be capable of reaching speeds of 300 km/h. |
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