overnight trains vs flying?
 

Having read lots...
would love to know from recent independent travelers if it is faster to take overnight trains (Beijing to Xian, for example) rather than flights between cities in China?
The money isn't the issue, we care most about the time factor as we only have 11 full days in China and have to fly in/out of Beijing due to frequent flyer restriction.
Including time waiting in stations/airports, etc., which is the best time-saver? My husband and I are traveling next October , if the season makes a difference in your answers...
thanks!!

Hi Izzofan:
Here's my 2 cents:
I wanted to take the overnight "Z" train, but it was sold out when I needed to travel. I flew from Shanghai to Beijing and it was a great flight. (2.5 hours) It appears that the airports for intra-China flights are not that crowded, (maybe Chinese do not fly as much as they take the train) and it was a snap compared to airports in the USA. none of the hassles. Security was tight, but it went quickly. Also, I paid one way $176 USD, which I could have gotten even cheaper on a different day and the train cost almost as much.
It was a huge time saver, since the overnight train leaves at 8pm or so and you end up in the city at 7 a.m....what can you do? Too early for a hotel check-in and you are propbably tired due to not sleeping a full night on the train.

October makes a difference to the answers if it's the first week of October. At the beginning and end of that week rail tickets will be very hard to obtain indeed, and air tickets more expensive (less heavily discounted) than usual.

If time rather than money is the issue, then the train may well still be your choice. The overnight services from Beijing to Xi'an that you mention deliver you early in the morning to Xi'an and ready for a full day's sightseeing. The stations at both ends are in the cities in question whereas the airports are well outside (Xi'an's on a particularly congested highway into town), and there's no need to be there more than about 15 minutes before the train leaves as opposed to an hour or so for the flights.

These overnight services are a particularly efficient use of time since you'd be asleep anyway (unless you're desperate to sample the nightlife, in which case they get in the way.) Flights inevitably take up chunks of daytime.

Hotels with empty rooms will have no objection to letting you check-in early in the morning, and if rooms are not ready then you can always leave your bags at the hotel, go off sightseeing, and check-in later.

Peter N-H

My wife and I recently made a number of overnight train journeys in China (en route from Beijing to Kashgar) in preference to air travel. Our logic was that you need to sleep and it saves time to do that while travelling thereby freeing up your days. Additionally terminal waiting time is less and as railway stations are in town you can save travel time beween terminal and city centre. Obviously it depends on journey and schedules but you will often get virtually full days at both point of destination and arrival.

We found it worked well. Our reservations ensured we had a compartment to ourselves. Accommodation is simple but adequate. On each of our overnights we found toilet/washing facilities basic but clean. We had no fears about personal safety on the train.

The only comment I would make is that we would have not wanted to do two consecutive nights on trains.

The only internal flight we made was very short between Xi'an and Lanzhou in the late afternoon. Getting to/from the airports presented no problems but the checkin, flying and road travel times combined meant we lost half of the day.

The week that was sold out on the Shanghai-Beijing sleeper night train route was very late Oct. (27th)to the first week of November, around the 4th, 2008.

lollylo, that's a shame it was booked out. At that time of year you would think you would be okay.
That's the thing with train travel on popular routes. You can only book so far ahead & hope you get lucky.

I was really sad! :( I was not able to take the overnight train at all since Shanghai-Beijing was the only route needed. I did end up taking the day train to Suzhou, and somehow I ended up in steerage class...LOL....what an experience that was. I was the only Westerner.

lollylo, That happened to us once lol. In a way it was really entertaining & we still talk about it to this day!
The train conductor was selling socks & the man opposite wanted some so he spent nearly an hour going through each pair to make sure they were okay. They were the kind of socks that look like stocking knee highs.

Funny enough I also read about someone selling socks on trains (the book was Fried Eggs with Chopsticks). Maybe that's how train conductors supplement their income - by selling socks!