Beijing Transportation Tips by albaaust

'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: We decided that we would take the express overnight train to Beijing from Taiyuan which is about 2 hours by car from Pingyao. As Taiyuan is a major railway station there would be more options in terms of trains to Beijing.

For this reason we made the decision that we would combine this with a visit to the Qiao family residence and so we organised a taxi to Taiyun and thereafter train to Beijing.

The train we caught was the N202 leaving Taiyuan at 9.30pm and arriving Beijing at 8.00am.

This time we waited (waiting area 2) along with the hordes of other people to catch the train rather than in a special waiting area. (Use your ticket number to find out which waiting area to go to).This in itself was an interesting experience. People were quite interested in us and some even crowded over our shoulders to see what we were doing - sudoku. One interesting episode was watching young men try to hop on board trains without paying for a ticket ( they would simply jump over the gates while the rest of the ticket inspectors were busily checking the hordes through the gates).

The 4 berth cabin from Taiyuan seemed to be slightly more upmarket (flower in vase etc see photos) than the train we took from Xian. This time we did book soft seats, one lower and one upper on the same side. We shared with a young female student and a gentleman on his way to India to do business.
The trip was uneventful and we all seemed to agree mutually when the main light would be turned off and when we would all wake in the morning.

We organised the taxi and the train tickets through our hotel.Cost 215 Yuan each.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: The subway was very easy to use. We went to the counter and said where we wanted to go –usually it cost 3 Yuan.

Tickets were paper checks not plastic cards as used elsewhere. Train signs with station names are on the platform including the direction the train is going. Directions for exits –large location maps are near the exit signs.

See photos

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: We did not use taxis very much in Beijing given the first experience we had with taxis at the railway station. However, we could not avoid using one to the airport.

What we did was to ask the hotel to organise the taxi and fix the amount we would pay.

100 Yuan to airport.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: We subscribe to this. They have just updated to include train times as well. You might find it useful although we did not use this site. We asked the hotel staff to book for us trains and planes which worked out well.

You can use the site to work out what train or plane you want to catch.

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Website: http://www.elong.net/