Travel: China - Shanghai

[MrsKiasu]

Riding on this thread…


Anyone knows if we could just go HK to stamp passport to so called extend our stay in China…for more than the max visa free period stay in China?

[pirated]

MrsKiasu:

Riding on this thread...


Anyone knows if we could just go HK to stamp passport to so called extend our stay in China...for more than the max visa free period stay in China?

Yes. There are people doing that. Cheaper version is fly to Shenzhen take a train across and be back.

Even cheaper if you get a visa so that you get at least 30 days instead of 14 days based on visa free entry

Visa fee is cheaper than airticket and save time from making the trip

[happydl]

starlight1968sg:

melody68:

Hi, does anybody know where i can book high speed train from beijing to shanghai? thank you

you mean book and pay while in spore?
you can go to Beijing train station to buy. unless it is festive season, the seats shld be available.

Hi,

Is December considered peak period?

Thinking of going either Beijing to Shanghai or Beijing to Harbin by train.

Do you know roughly how much is the price if book at the train station?

I saw alot of china websites selling the tickets. Wonder how much difference are the rates.

[MrsKiasu]

pirated:

MrsKiasu:

Riding on this thread...


Anyone knows if we could just go HK to stamp passport to so called extend our stay in China...for more than the max visa free period stay in China?

Yes. There are people doing that. Cheaper version is fly to Shenzhen take a train across and be back.

Even cheaper if you get a visa so that you get at least 30 days instead of 14 days based on visa free entry

Visa fee is cheaper than airticket and save time from making the trip

Thanks alot pirated...

[floppy]

happydl:

starlight1968sg:

[quote=\"melody68\"]Hi, does anybody know where i can book high speed train from beijing to shanghai? thank you

you mean book and pay while in spore?
you can go to Beijing train station to buy. unless it is festive season, the seats shld be available.

Hi,

Is December considered peak period?

Thinking of going either Beijing to Shanghai or Beijing to Harbin by train.

Do you know roughly how much is the price if book at the train station?

I saw alot of china websites selling the tickets. Wonder how much difference are the rates.[/quote]December is non-peak. You should be able to get tickets by purchasing at least a day in advance. If you are buying lots of tickets, you may want to buy it a week ahead of time.

The official fares are available on the http://www.12306.cn/mormhweb/. However, you would need to understand Chinese in order to navigate (no English version). Other websites typically take the official fare and add a mark up. Try to choose the high speed train (G Class if available) or the overnight sleeper train (if you want to save on hotel and can sleep on the train). For PEK to SHA, you are looking at around ¥550 per pax.

[rains]

If I were to do it again, I would probably ask the hotel staff to buy the train tickets for me a few days in advance for a small fee.


This way, you don't have to worry about the tickets running out when you get to the train station or make a special trip to get the tickets. I stupidly wasted time trying to find the agent selling the tickets and buying the tickets. It seemed near to the hotel we were staying at but unfamiliarity with the place made us tread on unnecessary paths. We got tired after getting the tickets and could not do much sightseeing after that.

I can't recall how long the journey from Shanghai to Beijing was but we took the overnight sleeper train so that we didn't have to waste the daytime travelling. Sleeping on a high speed train was also an experience in itself.

If I were to go China again, I would also readjust my expectations towards the people and place. I went there very wary of cheats since I met quite a few in Singapore but found that most of them in China were honest people like us trying to make a living. Although you can't expect all of them to be extremely helpful and friendly like the Japanese and Taiwanese, but most of them would try to help whenever they could. Having said this, I would still abide by the 'When in Rome, do as Romans do' golden rule. When anyone is rude, be rude back. I find myself enjoying my trips a lot more when I abandon my meek and polite ways in places that don't give a sh:t to people who practise them in their culture

[pirated]

The high speed train 高铁 does not run at night.


Yes the hotel concierge can do lots of stuff for you - buy train tickets, but SIM card etc

[rains]

pirated:

The high speed train 高铁 does not run at night.


Yes the hotel concierge can do lots of stuff for you - buy train tickets, but SIM card etc

Ooo I just saw that. No it doesn't. Sorry for the false info. It was an overnight sleeper train.

[floppy]

rains:

pirated:

The high speed train 高铁 does not run at night.


Yes the hotel concierge can do lots of stuff for you - buy train tickets, but SIM card etc

Ooo I just saw that. No it doesn't. Sorry for the false info. It was an overnight sleeper train.

The high speed train takes between 5 hours to 6 hours, depending on whether the train is running at 300km/h or 250km/h. Different trains/schedules run at different speed. The overnight train takes about 1.5 times longer.

If melody68 prefer to DIY and purchase tickets online, I would recommend http://www.ctrip.com. They have a Singapore - English version now.

[MrsKiasu]

MrsKiasu:

pirated:

Riding on this thread...

Anyone knows if we could just go HK to stamp passport to so called extend our stay in China...for more than the max visa free period stay in China?

Yes. There are people doing that. Cheaper version is fly to Shenzhen take a train across and be back.

Even cheaper if you get a visa so that you get at least 30 days instead of 14 days based on visa free entry

Visa fee is cheaper than airticket and save time from making the trip

Hehe now I would like to check if we could stamp passport at Macau? Stamp 1 time got 'extended' stay of 2 new weeks in China and can do stamping of more than 1 time?