Visit to China (Part 1) - The Journey

I reached Hangzhou on the 5th Dec, approx. 1315hours. Air Asia X has been very punctual, the seats are good, just like on an MAS plane and they are numbered so no need to rush but the toilets are not so clean. This flight took 5 hours.

My route this time is KL - Hangzhou - Suzhao - Shanghai - Beijing - Hangzhou - KL. Did quite a lot of traveling this time, spent 13 days altogether. Except for KL-Hangzhou-KL is by air, the rest of the journey is by rail.

The train is great, nice soft cushioned seats, clean toilets. the journey from Shanghai to Beijing takes 12 hours and Beijing to Hangzhou is 13 hours. We booked the soft sleeper so that we could spent the night on the train. It's a four beded luxury sleeping cabin, soft beds with pillows and warm quilts, you will be given a hot water flask, bedroom slippers and toothbrush. So comfy, I slept throughout the journey. If you're traveling in a group of 4, this is a good choice of transportation but if you're traveling alone, you might have to share the room with strangers. (which I don't think I want to coz this cabin door can be locked from inside).

The fare for this trip is Rmb499 for Shanghai-Beijing and Rmb599 for Beijing-Hangzhou each. The fare varies according to seasons. If you would like to book a ticket for this soft sleeper you must have good connections with somebody from the station or better to ask you travel agent to do it for you because the seats are very very limited. It's called 'Ruanwo' (soft nest - direct translation)

The 'Ruanwo'

For shorter journey such as Hangzhou to Suzhou and Suzhou to Shanghai I tried to get the tickets myself. I made a mistake for not buying the tickets in advance hence I couldn't get the CRH train or Express train tickets to Suzhou. I settled for the 'Yingwo' tickets which is the hard sleeper. A 6 beded sleeping cabin, you will have to share a cabin with others and it's an open cabin, no slippers and toothbrush. And if you get someone with stinky feet sleeping inside just like we did, you're going to die of suffocation! So, we spent most of our journey walking or standing along the narrow aisle for 5 hours! The fare, Rmb88 each.

The 'Yingwo'

The journey from Suzhou to Shanghai only takes 30 minutes. This time I'm not taking chances. So I bought the tickets one day in advance and I managed to get the CRH train tickets, one of the fastest train in China. Nice seat, clean and with English language announcement too. The fare, Rmb26 each.

CRH Train

All the seats are numbered, so there's no need to rush. But the Chinese are kind of weird, they will line up half an hour before checking in time and then rush and push to go through the gate. In the end, still have to wait on the platform or in the train for at least 10 minutes before the train departs. Weird people...

Scene at the Hangzhou Train Station