New high-speed sleeper train service connects Hong Kong with Beijing and Shanghai

Hong Kong
CNN
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Interested in wrapping up your Hong Kong trip with a long weekend in Beijing or Shanghai? A new high-speed sleeper train service is making this possibility easier than ever.

Two new night routes connecting the city with Beijing and Shanghai entered service on June 15.

Both trains depart Hong Kong West Kowloon Station in the evening and arrive in Beijing at 6:53 am and Shanghai at 6:45 am, making journeys around 12.5 hours and 11 hours respectively. Return trips depart Beijing and Shanghai at around 8pm and arrive in Hong Kong at 8:47am and 7:29am. These routes run four days a week, departing from all three stations every night from Friday to Monday.

“It will be more comfortable and faster, cutting travel time by about half, and will cover a wider range of destinations, including popular tourist attraction cities,” said John Lee, chief executive of Hong Kong, in a press release , referring to the previous night train routes that linked Hong Kong with China’s two largest cities.

These intercity rail services, Beijing-Kowloon and Shanghai-Kowloon, were launched in 1997. The train journey to China’s capital took about 24 hours, while the journey to Shanghai took about 19 hours.

Services were suspended during the 2020 pandemic and were replaced by new high-speed options launched on June 15.

But while the new trips do cut nighttime travel times by almost half, the high-speed services take a little longer than the daytime bullet trains already in service that connect Hong Kong and the two mainland Chinese cities.

The railway company currently operates a daily high-speed connection to Beijing, which takes about 8.5 hours, and another to Shanghai, which takes about 7.5 hours.

Why bother with the longer journey then? The new sleeper trains may not be the fastest way to get between Hong Kong and Beijing or Shanghai, but they are a great option for business travelers who need to arrive well-rested before standard business hours, as well as tourists from leisure who do not. Do you want to waste an entire day on the train or do you want to save on accommodation?

Each of the electric multiple unit (EMU) trains used to serve the routes has 16 cars, including 13 sleeping cars, two second-class seating cars and a dining car.

There are three types of seats to choose from: Second class (no bed), flat bed and luxury bed.

A standard sleeper class cabin consists of two bunks, accommodating four passengers, in one cabin. The deluxe version, available only on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route, has a bunk bed, wardrobe and sofa.

Prices range from HKD 937 to HKD 1,506 (US$120-US$193) for the Hong Kong-Beijing route and HKD 682 to HKD 2,128 (US$88-273) for the Hong Kong-Shanghai route.

Passengers who want to reserve a seat can book their tickets on China Railway’s official ticketing website 12306.cn. Note that for trains departing from Hong Kong, you must search “hkwestkowloon”.

International travelers can also book through ticketing platforms like Trip.com or purchase their tickets directly at West Kowloon Station.

A joint immigration checkpoint inside West Kowloon Station allows passengers to avoid additional checks when crossing the border in and out of Hong Kong. However, travelers still need to have a valid China visa or travel document to travel by train. (Although it is part of China, Hong Kong is governed by a separate legal framework.)

Opened in 2018, the 26-kilometer Hong Kong high-speed railway is part of the larger Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong (XRL) express rail link.

Costing more than $10.7 billion to build, the Hong Kong section connects the city to China’s 25,000-kilometer national high-speed rail network.

But the project, which marked the first time that mainland Chinese laws were given jurisdiction within the territory of Hong Kong, aroused much controversy, even long before its opening.

The high price, limited travel speed (the Hong Kong section has a maximum speed of 200 kilometers/hour – much lower than the usual 300 kilometers/hour due to its short distance) and political implications cast a shadow over the new road. of iron.

Controversy aside, the introduction of the express rail link provided an alternative way of traveling to major Chinese cities via Hong Kong – and avoiding China’s notorious flight delays.

Hong Kong station now offers direct trips to 78 destinations across China and around 70,600 passengers use the network daily, according to official data.