train daytrips from beijing
 

can anyone suggest a day train trip from beijing that my husgand and myself can take end of october this yesr and a good dim sum cafe for lunch when we arrive, thanks fizz

This seems like a strange question. In general, I wouldn't bother with the hassle of messing with crowds and ticket lines at the train station for a day trip out of the city. And the more interesting places are at least a few hours away - Chengde and Datong, for example.

Also, dim sum in a Cantonese thing. They don't do that in northern China.

But you may want to try Tianjin, the port city. Now, they have the new "highspeed" train from Beijing. Takes about an hour for the 130km trip.

Although dim sum is Cantonese, I did have 2 great dim sum meals in Beijing; the first at Summer Palace, the restaurant in the China World Hotel, and the other in the Cantonese restaurant on the lower level of the Peninsula Hotel. Both were outstanding, although I am certain they were overpriced by Chinese standards.

I certainly agree with Rkkwan about the train trip. Is it just that you want to experience a Chinese train?

thanks both of you, we like to take train trips out of main citys we travel to, and this will be our first journey on a chinese train, we were hoping to take the sleeper from hong kong to beijing but we have just found out the time table is wrong for us, very disappoined, but never mind, will have to fly to beijing now

oh, forgot to say, we are stsying at the PEN also, so might try dim sum here

What's the problem with your Hong Kong - Beijing train trip? Because it doesn't operate on the day you want?

Well, you can go up to Shenzhen and take the daily T106 from there. Not as convenient, but if you want to try the overnight train, there's still a way.

T106 departs Shenzhen daily 2:36pm and arrives Beijing 1:48pm. It takes a totally different route than the trains from Hong Kong or Guangzhou, but the duration is similar.

Better yet, take the "through train" from Hong Kong to Guangzhou East, and then transfer to either the T98 on the day it's not operating from Hong Kong, or the earlier T11/14, which is daily.

thanks for your prompt reply and help, fizz