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Hi,
I will travel through China for 4 or 5 weeks this year and I am looking for a bit of advise about train tickets. I am traveling first from Beijing to Laos (July) and then from Vietnam to Shanghai (September). I will only stay in the same place for a couple of days (except for big cities).
I am aware that I can't buy all my tickets at the same time because there is no central booking system so my questions are:
1) What are usually the opening times of ticket offices at train stations?
2) What are my chances to get for example a ticket for a sleeper train if I only turn up at the station a day in advance or worst case on the same day?

Thanks for your help
Anja

1) Opening times differ between different stations. Best way is probably call them to confirm before you go there. All cities have 114 info line. Call 114 and ask for train station ticket office number. Better call to confirm before go there.

For Beijing, below is their regular hours (many open 24 hrs during the Spring Festival):

Beijing Station: 24 hours (before only one or two windows at the west side of the entrance open in the night time)

Beijing West Station: 24 hours.

Beijing North Station (a smaller station): 6:00am ~ 10:30pm.

Beijing East Station: Open only during the normal business hours (closed at night, early morning breakfast time, lunch time, and dinner time).

2) depend on the route and date. Sorry, but hard to say for sure.

Good luck.

This post was last modified: 04-24-2009 05:50 PM by Sonia.

Thanks a lot

Hi my husband and i and two friends are coming to china in March next year and whish to travel by train from Shenzhen to Shanghai Then Shanghai to Beijing and back to Shenzhen . Is that corect we can not purchase tickets untill 14days before we wish to travel please get back to me Regards Jean Chesters email sydrideon@bigpond.com

hi i want to go from shanghai to beijing by train so my question is
can buy train ticket at train station before 2 days from shanghai departuring time?
i mean its not to need reservation in advance...its easily get ticket at station?

You can try to buy 2 days in advance. But whether you can get it or not depends on time and what type of trains. It can be very difficult to get tickets during holidays like national day or spring festival.

I will be in Shanghai from 11/19 - 11/29 and would like to go to Beijing what is the best way to purchase train tickets?

In china,most of us we book us train tickets from the traval agents,which is the best and easier way,you just have to add 4 or 5usd extra per ticket,they will deliver you what you what.

This post was last modified: 12-23-2010 09:45 AM by Sonia.