fran

<BR>Can someone who has been to China recently tell me the cost of the train, how often it runs and the latest time it returns to Shanghai. Also, I understand there is a boat that one can take overnite, same questions and are there sleeping facilities? Thank you for your help

Ricky

I visited two places last Sept. I don't have the detail timetable and fee schedule. But, the train is quite frequent (around 4-5 trains each day) and the fee is less than Rmb20 (US$2.5). The journey takes only 3 hours, only one class (no seating) tickets available. <BR>I haven't heard of boat trip between Shanghai & Suzhou. Maybe others readers can help you. But, we took the overnight boat trip from Hangzhou to Suzhou. If you need more info. on this boat trip or other info on these three places, email me. <BR> <BR>

Gayle

To the top for anymore responses please.

gayle

To the top for any more responses re easiest and how to do day trip independently from Shanghai to Suzhou. Thanks

Andrea

The easiest way to do a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou is to take the train. Like the above poster mentioned, it is very cheap. See the following link for a travel guide for taking a day trip there out of Shanghai: http://www.chinanow.com/english/shan...el/suzhou.html. <BR> <BR>Your hotel in Shanghai will be able to book your train tickets for you. I seem to remember getting first class tickets, but the above poster says it's all one class. Do ask if first class is available (called "soft" in China), because it will still be very cheap and will make your journey a bit nicer. I will check on train schedules and the boat & try to post soon.

Michael

Hope I'm not repeating Andrea too much... <BR>The classes available are generally called 'Soft seats' & 'Hard Seats' & the price difference between them is minimal by western standards. Both give seat allocation which avoids a scrum once the gate is opened. A single soft seat ticket to Nanjing (a few hours further past Suzhou from Shanghai) was RMB90 about 3 weeks ago. As Ricky says the cost to Suzhou is about RMB20, and I think soft seats are 30-40RMB. <BR>On the train to Nanjing, we stopped in Suzhou after about an hour. <BR> <BR>The Shanghai train station is undergoing renovation at the moment & is a bit messy. All the signs that you need (platforms etc.) are in English & easy to follow. I think the ticket is purely Chinese - just ask someone to point out which numbers on the ticket are the platform number, carriage number and seat number if you can't read the language. <BR> <BR>If you're not too worried about comfort for such a short trip, it can be kind of fun to go the hard seats. We did a few times & there was a constant queue of people to our carriage to see the daft westerners...! <BR> <BR>