Travel to Běijīng
Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z
Carts drawn by mules generally reach Peking in two days, but it has been done even in 26 hours. Sitting, however, in a cart without springs, and considering the bad road, it requires, besides a robust body and strong nerves, some practice before one is able to traverse a long distance without a halt. The hire for a cart from Tientsin [Tiānjīn] is 5 to 6 Mexican dollars.
Anonymous, Guide for Tourists to Peking and its Environs, Tiānjīn, 1897
In those days almost all foreigners reached Běijīng by ship from Hong Kong via Shànghǎi to Tiānjīn, and then travelled as far as possible by boat, typically to Tōngzhōu (通州), a village some distance from Běijīng but now swallowed by its eastern suburbs. In 2014 Běijīng and Tiānjīn announced plans to revive this waterway, but the chances are you’ll be arriving by plane or train, and even if by ship will be on your cruise line’s tour bus.
By Air
Even as recently as the 1980s reaching Běijīng was a tortuous business, certainly if there was any intent to do it with economy. These days it would be quicker to list the airlines that don’t fly to Běijīng rather than those that do.
Those travelling from Europe will almost universally find that their national airlines fly directly to Běijīng, usually with one Chinese airline as slightly cheaper competition. Service standards on Chinese airlines remain modest, however.
Those travelling from Western Europe will usually find it cheaper to travel on Eastern European airlines, changing planes in Sofia or similar, or via Instanbul (Turkish Airlines), Moscow (Aeroflot), Cairo (Air Egypt), Tashkent (Uzbekistan Airways), Karachi/Islamabad (PIA), Bangkok (Thai Airways), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian Airlines), Jakarta (Garuda Indonesia), Singapore (Singapore Airlines), Manila (Philippine Airlines), or other intermediate states with a liking for hard currency. Service standards vary wildly among these carriers, and economy is traded for often lengthy journey times.
Most major North American cities have either direct flights or those with a single domestic stop en route, with Chinese airlines again offering slightly lower prices. Options for more economical if long-drawn-out travel include flights via Tokyo (with JAL or ANA), Seoul (Korean Air), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific to HK, then Chinese airlines either from there or more cheaply from Shenzhen a bus ride across the border), Manila, and Jakarta. In terms of service on-board, airlines like JAL, ANA, and Cathay Pacific put North American airlines to shame and may make longer routings seem worthwhile.
Those from Oceania have fewer choices, although again stopovers in Manila, Jakarta, or flying first to Hong Kong may reduce prices. Crossing the border overland from Hong Kong to Shēnzhēn and flying on from there is usually significantly cheaper than flying from Hong Kong itself. There are frequent bus departures directly from beneath Elements Mall in Kowloon directly to Shenzhen Airport.
By Rail
From Hong Kong. The world’s longest high-speed rail service runs from Guǎngzhōu in neighbourng Guǎngdōng Province to Běijīng to in as little as eight hours. Twelve rail services a day connect Hong Kong’s Hung Hom terminal with Guǎngzhōu East (see www.it3.mtr.com.hk/B2C/frmScheduleGuangdong.asp?strLang=Eng for latest schedule, and information on ticketing), from where you can take Guǎngzhōu’s metro Line 1 to Gōngyuán Qiáo (公园桥) and change to Line 2 south to Guǎngzhōu South Railway Station (广州南站). There are five high-speed services a day, the fastest of which is the G66 at 10am, taking exactly eight hours to cover the 2298km to Běijīng West Station, at top speeds of just over 300km/h. First class is ¥1380, and second class, which is perfectly comfortable but with slightly more seats, is ¥862. Eventually this service will depart directly from Kowloon.
There are alternative slower services taking 20 to 30 hours, with hard seat class (for the determined masochist) at ¥251, hard sleeper berths (couchettes in two columns of three in an open compartment) ¥426 to ¥456, and soft sleeper berths (two columns of two beds in a compartment with door) ¥750 to ¥784. Upper berths cost less than lower ones. Tickets for all these services are available from agencies such as China Travel Service in Kowloon with no commission, and should not be purchased from on-line agencies whose mark-ups are often substantial.
But if planning to take a whole day to reach Běijīng it is far more convenient to take the T98 directly from Hong Kong’s Hung Hom station. This departs at 15.15 on alternate days, arriving at Běijīng West at 14.51 the next day. See www.it3.mtr.com.hk/B2C/frmScheduleBeijing.asp?strLang=Eng to confirm days of operation. Hard sleeper berths are HK$574–HK$601, soft sleepers are HK$934, and deluxe soft sleeper, two beds in a compartment with upmarket decor and upholstery, HK$1191. Faced with competition from the high-speed line from Guǎngzhōu these rates have of late been discounted by 10%, a policy that seems likely to continue. One-way tickets (tickets back to Hong Kong must be bought in Běijīng) are easily obtained in Hong Kong from Hung Hom, other MTR (the name for Hong Kong’s metro system) ticketing points, and from agencies such as China Travel Service that charge no commission. On-line China rail ticketing agencies have been known to charge as much as 70% extra, so avoid these.
From Europe it is now possible to go all the way to Běijīng by rail, changing at Moscow for routes via Ulaan Baatar (Trans-Mongolian) or Harbin (Trans-Manchurian), or changing at Almaty in Kazakhstan and Ürümqi in China’s northwest for the route across the width of China called the ‘Euro-Asia Continental Bridge’ (up to 1,200km shorter than the Trans-Siberian routes). In 2014 Russia and China revealed discussions to construct a new a high-speed line to from Moscow to Běijīng at a projected cost of US$230 billion, taking at least five years to build and reducing the journey time from six days to two. Very grandiose and economically unfeasible schemes of this kind are frequently announced, and re-announced, usually more for politics than practicality. But in late 2014 the two sides signed a memorandum of agreement (essentially an expression of intent to have further discussions) on construction of a line from Moscow 803km to Kazan, and in 2015 confirmed construction of the whole route.
For the truly adventurous, a line linking Iran with Turkmenistan might provide an alternative route via southern Europe and Turkey. Some have succeeded in travelling from Turkey via Tblisi in Georgia and Baku in Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan and on via Almaty and Ürümqi. Trains crossing into China from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia all pause lengthily at the border to switch bogeys from the broader former-Soviet gauge to the standard European gauge in use in China.
Trans-Manchurian no.20 leaves Moscow every Saturday at 23.55 Moscow time and arrives at Běijīng Zhàn via Harbin the following Saturday at 05.31 after 8961km.
The shorter Trans-Mongolian no.4 leaves Moscow every Tuesday at 21.35 Moscow time and arrives at Běijīng Zhàn via Ulaan Baatar at 14.04 the following Monday.
From Mongolia there’s also train no. 24 every Thursday at 07.15 arriving at 14.33 the next day.
Direct train M1/T6 leaves Hanoi in Vietnam on Tuesdays and Fridays at 18.30 Hanoi time. The Vietnamese metre-gauge (French-built) train is abandoned for a standard gauge Chinese train at the border at Dong Dang, which continues at 23.59. eventually reaching Běijīng Xī Zhàn (Běijīng West) on Thursdays and Sundays at 12.08 after 2996km. The narrow gauge line from Hanoi to Kūnmíng is now closed and under re-routing and reconstruction to standard gauge as part of a proposed World Bank-funded line with trains running through all the way from Singapore. Other accounts say that a line to Vientiane, capital of Laos, approved at the beginning of 2014 and of colossal expense due to the mountainous terrain of southern Yúnnán Province and Laos itself, will in time be extended to Thailand to provide the Singapore link. Early 2014 also saw the approval of a line southwest across Yúnnan to the Myanmar border, a route originally surveyed by the British in the late 19th century as a counter to French expansion from Indo-China, and talk of extensions of the Tibetan railway to the borders of Nepal, India, and Bhutan.
By Road
Driving as far as China’s borders is possible, but proceeding further is difficult and expensive. While a few tours are now being offered in which rented vehicles may be driven along specific routes, importing a vehicle is strictly for the resident foreigner with sound financial backing, or for the charity fund-raiser with several a years’ advance planning and all the right connections, or for someone prepared to spend a long time negotiating a fixed route and a price with CITS or a similar government-approved travel agency, which will include taking along a compulsory guide (who will be unlikely to know anything at all about the places you go).
There are buses to the Chinese border in Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan but it must be crossed on foot (not Nepal), and in the case of Kyrgyzstan travel on either side must be arranged with officially recognised travel companies.
By Sea
While there’s talk of reviving the section of blocked and silted Grand Canal from Tiānjīn to Běijīng (delays and difficulties are blamed on the very conservation standards imposed by UNESCO that China flouts at most of its other World Heritage-listed sites) the nearest port is at Tánggū (塘沽), outside Tiānjīn (天津), near the scene of heavy fighting during the Opium Wars and the route by which the British and French advanced on Běijīng in 1860. This is where cruise ships dock, and there are still international ferry services here from Incheon in South Korea (see www.jinchon.co.kr/schedule.asp). The service from Kobe in Japan has now been suspended. There are also domestic services from Dàlián (大连) in Northeast China.
There are plans to extend the high-speed line from Běijīng right to the docks, but for now Tángū Railway Station is 11km from the ferry docks by road. b 102 runs every 10 minutes but still takes about 1½ hours to make the journey, so bargaining with rapacious taxis remains the best option. ¥30 would be a fair price but you’ll struggle to get it.
Cruise ships arrive at Tiānjīn International Cruise Home Port, which is about 32km from the station, and by public transport a combination of bus and light rail taking nearly four hours. This seems particularly absurd when the 160km from Tánggū Station to Běijīng South takes merely 1hr 1min. There are eight services a day, departing between 08.36 and 21.52. Alternatively, there’s an hourly direct bus from the cruise terminal taking three hours to reach Běijīng’s Capital Airport for ¥94, as well as services to Běijīng’s Zhàogōngkǒu Bus Station. For directions into the city from there, see Arrival and Travel into Town. Chinese travel services want US$180 for a car, or US$80 for a seat on a coach: both prices utterly absurd.
There are still ferry services from Japan’s Shimonoseki to Qīngdǎo, further north up the coast and only a few hours by train from Běijīng (www.orientferry.co.jp), and from Osaka and Kobe to Shànghǎi (www.shinganjin.com/index_e.php, www.shanghai-ferry.co.jp/english), which is 5½ hours by high-speed train from Běijīng South.
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