I had the opportunity to take the Business Class cabin recently in a China High Speed Train between Shanghai and Beijing. It was a wonderful experience. It was very comfortable. You can also try the First Class in the same route (note that Business Class is higher class than First Class, unlike the airlines).
The only bad thing was the food was not so good 🙂
Starting from Shanghai Hong Qiao Station
I arrived at the Shanghai Hong Qiao train station. Please give yourself lots of time to arrive as there will be a chance of massive traffic during the trip and even when just arriving outside of the train station.
Lots of people printing their train tickets.. weird to be printing it outside the train station.
You have to clear security before you can enter the train station proper.
And it is a massive train station. Like really really big.
You can always try to buy the tickets when you reach the station but then I suspect you can only get the 2nd class tickets (or maybe first class). Business class sold out very quickly.
If you are taking the business class, there is a lounge.. but it was NOT opened when I was there at 7am.
Oh well, off to the gate. You can see your gate in your ticket.
And one point. Queues will start forming outside the gate and they can be very long. However, if you have business class ticket, just walk up to the front of the queue, show your ticket to the attendant, and you can skip the queue (I cannot promise the people behind will be happy with you though…).
The magnificent high speed train 复兴号
Yes. I make sure it is the correct train 🙂
Business Class Seats in High Speed Train
And the business class cabin:
Not one of the best seats in the cabin. The rest are either alone or next to the window. This one is weird 🙂
My seat:
A photo of the second class seats in the cabin just behind the business class. Not too bad too !
Ironically, there is no space in the cabin for your luggage. It has to go behind the seats.
Enough space by the side of the seat for your backpack:
Back to my seat and taking lots of photos 🙂
Laying flat is more flat than a plane (Sorry Sir.. cannot help it.. u were really comfortable) 🙂
Service:
Slippers.. I never used it:
A blanket too 😉
Coffee and snacks were served.. by an onboard stewardess but she is no SQ girl… quite grumpy 🙂
There is a food tray and the food is really not good though
Honestly, the fun part is the view.. just miles and miles of countryside and city views.. with my Singapore passport:
And at 12:24pm (4 hours and 24 minutes after the train left Shanghai on time at 8am), I arrived at the Beijing South station.
From there, grab a taxi (again long queue….) to the Beijing Westin hotel at Chaoyang.
