Because of this, you may find yourself left with whatever is left to buy at the station when you arrive. There are websites for purchase, but with some exceptions, I wouldn’t expect English language webpages, and you may find tickets difficult to buy without a Chinese ID number and Chinese methods of payment (this is challenging even from Hong Kong). This can be quite challenging at busy times of year (around Chinese public holidays) when it can become impossible to make a long distance journey for a couple days. they are only available for sale 14 days before the day) and once trains are sold out, there are no more tickets. Pre-booking - most high speed and inter-regional Chinese trains have a 14-day purchase window (i.e. After an hour in a queue uncertain of what I was queueing for I gave up and decided to spend the day where I’d ended up. On one occasion, my train was terminated unexpectedly in a small town (by China standards), buses were arranged for onward travel, with departures to different places from different station exits. I speak and read a little Mandarin but it’s not enough - on a couple of occasions, I’ve given up on day trips because I cannot work out where I need to go and can’t find anyone who speaks English, or can understand whatever Google Translate has done to my translated sentence. It’s normally fine when everything runs to time, but as soon as there is any kind of disruption, it’s challenging to work out what to do. Once you venture off the high speed network, it becomes a little more challenging - it can be quite difficult to communicate to purchase rail tickets, and, once purchased, quite challenging to identify which train you need and which platform it leaves from. Unlike other Google services, it still seems to work in mainland China. Google Translate will be your best friend to translate, but it’s translation into Chinese is a long way from perfect. The High Speed Lines tend to be just about manageable alone - most information is replicated in English. ![]() ![]() I would recommend pre-booking rail travel and sticking to high speed lines unless you read Mandarin or are travelling with someone who does. I live in Hong Kong and travel into China by train on a semi-regular basis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |