Schedule & Ticket Options

The train leaves from the Beijing West Rail Station at 9:30PM. You can see from the below schedule that the train makes a number of stops along the way. If you look closely you will see that the stops are very short and do not allow much time. It would have been nice to have a little more time at each of the stops, although I guess I can understand because they were very efficient getting people on and off the train at each of the stops. I would also say that at most stops there were not a great number of people getting off and on the train. By far the vast majority of the people boarded the train in Beijing.

You will also see below the train pricing. I am not sure on the exact specifics, but I believe tickets only go on sale somewhere between two weeks and ten days prior to the departure date. it is my thought that this was put into place to limit the number of foreigners that purchase tickets and allow the maximum number of Chinese into Tibet. The pricing is very cheap considering the distance you are traveling.

We purchased our tickets as part of an entire package through a travel agency in Kathmanduand. I would recommend going this route. After countless hours of research we decied to go with--> Mountain Sherpa Trekking and Expeditions <-- I can't speak highly enough on how well Pasang from Mountain Sherpa Trekking and Expeditions took care of use. While we did meet one Western Couple that were able to purchase tickets day of, I would not recommend it. This is different then what I have read about most other train travel in China.

The Train was about ten or eleven cars in length including the dining car, but not including the engine(s). At the front of the train were the regular seating cars, which were followed by the dining car then three Soft Sleeper Cars and lastly three Hard Sleeper Cars. I thought about writing the specifics down, but never got around to it.

I walked the entire train and I can not tell you what the difference is between Hard Seats and Soft Seats. (Maybe there were no hard seats?) To me most of the seating cars where what I would call Soft Seating as seen in the photo. As you can see from the photograph the seating cars were actually quite nice. Naturally they were quite crowded and it looked as if most people staked out an area to setup camp. We spent very little time in the seating area since there really was no place to sit. Also I am not sure if it was our Western appearance or if they were all borde and had nothing else to look at, but as we entered each car it seemed as if everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us. If memory serves me there were four or five of these cars.

The Hard Sleeper area we only passed through very quickly. The only reason I went through this area was because it was my goal to at least once get to each end of the train. The Hard Sleepers were very similar to the Soft Sleepers except that they had six beds in each of the cabins instead of four like in our Soft Sleeper. I would not recommend this unless you are OK with very close living and sleeping quarters.

I stand at about 6'6" (198 cm) tall. Yes I know I am tall and Yes it is even more evident on trips such as this. But anyways, I would say that the train was about 9' (275 cm) tall and each of the cabins were about 7' (213 cm) wide. Trying to fit six people plus their luggage into that type of space is not something that I would be interested in. I am guessing there was maybe 3' (91 cm) worth of vertical space in each of the Hard Sleeper bunks. Not to mention since the Cabins stretch out into the car there is only a very small walk way that people are able to use.

We went with the Soft Sleeper option. As you can see from the photo at right you have two bunks on each side of the cabin with a very small table in between that sits up against the window. The bunks do not fold up or move in any way. The lower bunk has a back cushion that makes it a little more comfortable to sit upright. The bunks themselves were actually quite comfortable for what they were. The temperature within the cabin and throughout the train was always quite comfortable although we did have very nice weather for the 48 hours we were on the train so I am not sure how things would work during hot or cold spells.

Luggage storage was another challenge. There is some space for an average sized suitcase down below the bottom bunk and then there is some space for luggage up above on a ledge above the door, but not really much else. We were traveling with two trekking backpacks, a duffel bag, and a camera bag. We got it all to fit, but just barely. There were some Europeans that boarded at one of the stops and they had a terrible time getting their hard luggage to fit. Keep this in mind because if it does not fit in your cabin, then I am not sure where else it would go. I did not see any extra space anywhere. This train is really maximized for utility of space. One option, if you wanted more space, would be to purchase all four bunks and use only two. Really it is not all that much more and you would have the entire cabin to yourself as well as plenty of luggage space. I personally liked getting the opportunity to interact with two other people that we had never met.

It should be noted that while I never considered drafts to be a problem, at each end of the cars there were quite a few openings where air from inside and outside mixed freely. Also the window in the bathroom was open more times than not. I for some reason thought this train was sealed and possibly pressurized, but I saw no evidence of this. I will cover this in detail later.

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