A Xi'an Train Transportation Question + Any Other Advice You Would Like To Offer

Hello Everyone,

First: I'd like to say that I do not have very much experience with forums so I hope I'm doing everything right.

Second: We will be taking the bullet train from Beijing West Station to Xi'an North Station. We plan to stay at Hun Tang Hostel. I read on the hostel website that they have free train/airport pickups, excluding the North Station because it is very far ( Google Maps says 45 minutes by car). I tried to find a train from Beijing headed to Xi'an West station, I was able to find some trains going to West station from Beijing but none of them were the high speed trains. Does anyone know how we could get from the Xi'an North Station to the Xi'an South Station?

Why do you want to go to Xi'an south station? Wouldnt you want to go to your hostel in Xi'an, or perhaps to Xi'an Main Train Station? Take Xi'an's subway. It's not the fastest, but it's among the cheapest and difficult to get lost. Otherwise take a taxi.

I have been unable to find any trains directly connecting the two stations. Does anyone happen to know how much to expect to pay for a taxi in Xi'an? And how easy it will be to find a reputable taxi outside Xi'an North Station?

Probably ~12RMB plus 2RMB per km plus time sitting in traffic. Shouldnt be more than 60-80rmb but I could be wrong.

Most Chinese taxi drivers are pretty honest although they may be clueless. Telling them 'Hun Tang Hostel' will probably get a bit of a shrug.

I've already booked the hotel for the night of September 2 but am now wondering if I actually need to book the hotel for the night of September 1 since we will be getting there in the middle of the night. I just thought of this, so I will trying to send the hotel an email to inquire about check in times.

If you arrive at 4:05 am, you will not clear immigration and get into town until 6am pretty much guarenteed. Just tell them you are arriving early and would like your room made up when you arrive. They should be able to find someone who is checking out early and wash the sheets.

We plan to rest awhile in the hotel before joining a Great Wall Tour (Mutianyu). After the tour we will return to Li Hoa hotel for the night.

Probably better to do some general touristing in Beijing when you arrive, tired and jet lagged. Rather than heading straight to the great wall. Great wall tours usually start EARLY in the morning, like 6am when you would just be arriving. They tend to be exhausting and the food is scarce and questionable.(sometimes you do find a pretty good local place, but often it's just meh)
I wouldnt want to do that on my first jet lag day.

The morning of September 3 we plan to take a taxi to located in Beijing. After arriving at the hostel we hope to join a group Beijing City Day Tour.

Why not just use the subway? Much easier to navigate. Flagging down a taxi these days is difficult. Explaining to them where you want to go more difficult(unless you speak mandarin). Getting them to agree to take you there more difficult.

Tours wont save you too much time, but will probably inconvenience you at the sights.

Does anyone know how much a taxi is from airport to Beijing?

A taxi from PEK airport to central Beijing should be 90-120RMB. There is a 10RMB surcharge to use the airport and things cost 10-15% more at night.

This is where the Beijing to Xi'an train situation begins. We would like to take the high speed train from Beijing to Xi'an, and it looks like that train only leaves Beijing West and goes to Xi'an North. We are hoping it will be logistically reasonable for us to find transportation to either our hostel or somewhere our hostel will pick us up at.

Again you can take the subway to Beijing West Train Station, or you can take a taxi with your bags. Beijing West Train Station is the busiest, most annoying station in Beijing, but hey they are all pretty big, busy, and annoying.

We will be arriving in Xi'an at 2:18 pm. We hope that is early enough for us to still be able to visit the Terracotta Warrior Museum that same day as that will be our only day in Xi'an.

If you arrive in Xi'an North Station at 2:18pm you wont get checked into your hostel before 3pm and then out to the Terracotta warriors before 4pm. I would do things in Xi'an the day you arrive(probably tired)

Do we absolutly need a guide to go to the Museum?

Certainly dont need a guide. 99% of tourists go without a guide

We are staying in Xining for 2 nights to help us acclimate to higher elevations as we prepare to take the sky train to Tibet. We would like to see the "Rainbow Mountains" Zhangye Danxia Geological Park Tour I read there is a $6 entry fee + $3 shuttle ticket. I also read there is no other ways to get to the park other than taking a taxi from Xining and having it wait for you in order to take you back. I read to expect to pay about $30 for the roundtrip. Does anyone know how accurate that is? I know that the park is a good drive from Xining.

Zhangye is a completely different city 350km away from Xining. It's a 5+ hour drive. Round trip would be 11-12 hours plus any time waiting. No you will not find a taxi to do that for $30. You can take the fast train from Xining to Zhangye, but I thought you were trying to acclimate to the high altitude.

We we will be taking the sky train to Tibet the evening of September 7. I have yet to book any trains for this trip because it seems they will not be on sale until a month before. We plan to try to get a soft sleeper but will be more than satisfied with a hard sleeper. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for us about this trip? We have read that the late train provides best light for the most scenic spots after Golmud.

Soft sleeper doesnt offer any more comfort than Hard sleeper for my money. Slightly less crowded but kind of awkward being in a closed cabin with strangers.

I really appreciate any insights you may have for me.

Your itinerary is ** FAR FAR too rushed** for my liking. Arriving from the US tired and jetlagged I would want to rest. I would then want to actually explore Beijing. The summer palace, the forbidden city, the great wall, temple of heaven, the traditional hutongs and a few temples: that's 3 days. 4 with the jetlag.

Looks like you have 1.5 days in Beijing. Sounds exhausting. I wouldnt have attempted it when I was 22.

Xi'an is a great city. So much to do and see. The Terracota Warriors are the most famous, but are outside the top 5 reasons to go to Xi'an in my opinion.

You have less than 1 day in Xi'an, taking the day train to and flying out. You might not see much of anything other than the train stations.

You then have 2 days in Xining, probably to sleep off your previous 4 day hellish guantlet. But Xining isn't really high enough to help you acclimate. Golmud would be better.

I hope I'm doing everything right.

Skip Xi'an include it when you have time to make the trip worth it.
Arrive in Beijing and spend 3-4 days there. Then fly to Xining, spend a day before taking the train to Golmud. Relax, dont do much. Then take your trip to Lhasa.

If you insist on rushing through,
still spend 3 days in Beijing, then take the NIGHT train from Beijing West to Xi'an Main. Then you will have the whole day to see Xi'an and you can either fly out late to Xining/Golmud or take an early flight. Sadly Xi'an's airport is FAR outside the city.

Hi rpbourne,

Thank you so much for your fast replies. Originally my Dad just wanted to go to China for a week to see Beijing and the Great Wall. As we began to look into everything that China has to offer the trip became longer, and then we added Tibet and Everest Base Camp! We knew that we were trying to shove a lot into a little. I am grateful that your perspective conveys just how rushed we will be, and how much more research I need to do.

Why do you want to go to Xi'an south station? Wouldnt you want to go to your hostel in Xi'an, or perhaps to Xi'an Main Train Station? Take Xi'an's subway. It's not the fastest, but it's among the cheapest and difficult to get lost. Otherwise take a taxi.

The Hostel offers free pick up service from Main Station or Airport. I was tying to determine if it was cheaper to get a taxi to one of the places they provide free pick up service to or if it would be cheaper to take a taxi directly to the Hostel. Before you replied I emailed hostel the same question. They informed me that taxi from North Station to Hostel is 150RMB. My plan for using taxi's in China without speaking Mandarin is to have addresses written down on a card to hand to drivers.

If you arrive at 4:05 am, you will not clear immigration and get into town until 6am pretty much guarenteed. Just tell them you are arriving early and would like your room made up when you arrive. They should be able to find someone who is checking out early and wash the sheets.

I have emailed the hotel to see what their policies are. I know in some hotels I have stayed in if you check in after midnight but before a set time in the morning you have to pay for the previous night too. If when I get back with them they are unable to do as you pointed out then we will plan on just waiting around the airport until whatever time we are allowed to check in without getting an extra night.

Probably better to do some general touristing in Beijing when you arrive, tired and jet lagged. Rather than heading straight to the great wall. Great wall tours usually start EARLY in the morning, like 6am when you would just be arriving. They tend to be exhausting and the food is scarce and questionable.(sometimes you do find a pretty good local place, but often it's just meh)
I wouldnt want to do that on my first jet lag day.

We were hoping that we would get enough sleep on the plane to be able to rest awhile in the hotel and then start the wall tour. We have not booked any tours yet because we were waiting for the hotel to get back with us about their tour recommendations. Thank you for pointing out that group tours will start early. I wonder if a private tour would be able to accommodate us to leave a bit later in the day? Either way I think we do really need to consider slowing things down a lot there. Perhaps we will eliminate the Beijing City Tour so that we have a day to rest before visiting the Great Wall.

Why not just use the subway? Much easier to navigate. Flagging down a taxi these days is difficult. Explaining to them where you want to go more difficult(unless you speak mandarin). Getting them to agree to take you there more difficult.

Tours wont save you too much time, but will probably inconvenience you at the sights.

My Dad thinks that the subway will be harder to navigate than having a taxi take a from point a to point be, so I haven't actually considered using the subway. Based on your suggestion I will be looking into that option a lot more. Then maybe we will still have time and energy to explore some of Beijing sights without a tour.

If you arrive in Xi'an North Station at 2:18pm you wont get checked into your hostel before 3pm and then out to the Terracotta warriors before 4pm. I would do things in Xi'an the day you arrive(probably tired)

I'm sorry, I am a little confused, do you think there is time for Terracotta Warriors the day we arrive? Thank you for reassuring me that with a little forethought and preparation we can experience and enjoy the museum without a tour.

Zhangye is a completely different city 350km away from Xining. It's a 5+ hour drive. Round trip would be 11-12 hours plus any time waiting. No you will not find a taxi to do that for $30. You can take the fast train from Xining to Zhangye, but I thought you were trying to acclimate to the high altitude

We will be cutting this out of our trip entirely. Thank you.

Your itinerary is ** FAR FAR too rushed** for my liking. Arriving from the US tired and jetlagged I would want to rest. I would then want to actually explore Beijing. The summer palace, the forbidden city, the great wall, temple of heaven, the traditional hutongs and a few temples: that's 3 days. 4 with the jetlag.

Looks like you have 1.5 days in Beijing. Sounds exhausting. I wouldnt have attempted it when I was 22.

Xi'an is a great city. So much to do and see. The Terracota Warriors are the most famous, but are outside the top 5 reasons to go to Xi'an in my opinion.

You have less than 1 day in Xi'an, taking the day train to and flying out. You might not see much of anything other than the train stations.

You then have 2 days in Xining, probably to sleep off your previous 4 day hellish guantlet. But Xining isn't really high enough to help you acclimate. Golmud would be better

I have read that many people stop over in Xining to rest and adjust. I will look into Golmud as a better option. Thank you.

Skip Xi'an include it when you have time to make the trip worth it.
Arrive in Beijing and spend 3-4 days there. Then fly to Xining, spend a day before taking the train to Golmud. Relax, dont do much. Then take your trip to Lhasa.

I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your responses. I'm grateful for reading though my plans and providing me with feedback. I now have a lot more research to do.

If you insist on rushing through,
still spend 3 days in Beijing, then take the NIGHT train from Beijing West to Xi'an Main. Then you will have the whole day to see Xi'an and you can either fly out late to Xining/Golmud or take an early flight. Sadly Xi'an's airport is FAR outside the city.

We want to pack in as much as we absolutely (yet realistically) can.

I'm going to look into going directly form airport to Beijing hostel instead of airport hotel. Then we will be able to spend 3 days in Beijing. I suggested a night train to my Dad before from Beijing to Xi'an but he thinks it will be better to go during the day so that daylights allows us to see what we are passing by. At this point though everything is up for change.

Thank you.

I agree that getting the night train to Xian would allow you to have a whole day in Xian. You can get a bus out to the warriors (about an hour) but it will be too late by the time you get to your hostel. The north train station has a metro stop so you will be able to get into town by metro. Just ask the hostel what is the nearest metro stop.

Again you can get an overnight train from Xi'an to Xining or a fast D train, 4 to 5 hours. I'm pretty sure there's a bus from Xining station to your hostel (check with them). My experience was that a taxi had a lot of trouble finding the hostel, which is actually a couple of floors on ththe top of a residential block, but pretty good I thought with a very helpful staff.

You can get to Zhangye, from where you can get a bus to the Danxia landforms (about an hour) in a couple of hours. Zhangye is a very pleasant little city.

While you are in Xining you might want to go out to the very good Tibetan museum. There is a public bus that goes there but it takes a long time so a taxi would be best. Your trip does seem very rushed to me.

... Xining isn't really high enough to help you acclimate.

??? Xining at 2300 is near ideal altitude for a first acclimatization stop - thats why the railway construction company invested literally millions in making a first stop for their workers there. When I have lots of time on my hands this is also roughly the altitude I go for , for best comfort.

Opinions aside there are numbers on how this plays out in large groups : nonstop train works out better than flying in , and adding extra nights in Xining gives an extra egde on top of that . Xining + Golmud would be the ideal thing , and probably not much better than Xining + Diamox .

https://vistet.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/to-lhasa-by-train-or-plane/

Since there is big genetic factor in AMS you probably will hear from a few that from personal experience can disprove practically any itinerary or method . Its a numbers game.

OP, this is a mess, it's just too much in too little time and you need to make a hard choice then cancel out some of what you've already done. You are so worried about little details that you're missing the big picture of whether your itinerary even makes sense in the limited time frame you have. Let's start backwards:
1) The Tibet trip is apparently set and those dates will hold.
2) You don't yet have train tickets for Sept 7 and are apparently going to try to get those on your own through an independent agent. I think this is a mistake and you should let Tibet Vista get them, since the Tibet train tickets are extremely difficult to procure during high season, which this is. The Tibet agents usually have buttons they can push that you can't. I'm not sure what you gain by going to another agent and you certainly can't wait until you get to Beijing and buy them yourself.
3) You need the two days in Xining, while acclimatization isn't perfect there, it's the best option you have if you want to take the train into Tibet. Zhangye is out of the question.
4) That leaves what happens between your arrival in Beijing early on Sept 2 and your arrival in Xining on Sept 5. I think you have two realistic choices: stay in Beijing and cut Xi'an, or get to Xi'an and cut Beijing. I would do the former. The Warriors are not compelling enough to short shrift Beijing and Xi'an, which is what you are doing. I think your idea that you will get enough sleep on a plane to hit the ground running is, well, unrealistic.
5) If you stick to Beijing only (which has more to see than one can cover in a week), then you'd immediately after incoming processing, go into town to your hotel and not bother staying out by the airport--just buy the previous night and tell them you will be arriving in the morning and want to check in immediately. Then you can proceed with city sightseeing as you feel up to it, then deal with the Great Wall on a subsequent day. Morning of the 5th you can take an early flight PEK-XNN and keep on schedule.

Yes, this requires cancelling out your current hotel bookings and redoing them, and if you have already made the XIY-XNN flight, cancelling that as well in favor of a new booking. Beijing is mostly easy to tour on your own by subway and taxi without a guide. I would do the Great Wall on the 4th. The GW Day, prearrange a car/driver and have him go to Mutianyu, wait for you, then take you to the Summer Palace so you can maximize private transport on the two most distance-from-central-city sights. The 2nd and 3rd sightseeing plans we can help you with if you commit to the Beijing-only strategy.

We are staying in Xining for 2 nights to help us acclimate...

You got this part right , its nights/sleeping elevation that really matters. And two nights is a lot better than just one.

...Tour offered by Tibet Vista.

Oh.

Missed that part.

Check just how far away their plan is removed from the safety guidelines from Himalayan Rescue Association , International Society for Mountain Medicine , CDC etc in my earlier link. They have posted a lot of crazy itineraries over the years . Dont take any of the elevations they mention for granted. Shigatse for example is less than two hundred meters higher than Lhasa , and no amount of time spent at that altitude makes it safe going directly to EBC and staying there overnight.

Dont believe any of the altitude health advice given on their site ( including "Doctor Wu" ) without corroborating from legit medical sources. These are the guys who still, after more than a decade of operation , believe that the train is pressurised....