In China, high-speed trains run between Beijing and Shanghai, which consist only of sleeping cars. This is a kind of analogy to our reserved seat, but it looks different. Channel "1520. All about the railway" showed and explained how everything works here.

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If you look from the outside, you get the impression that the carriage is two-story, but this is not the case. Actually it's regular train, but the windows are located separately for passengers in the upper and lower rows.

Photo from cfts.org.ua

Photo from cfts.org.ua

There are no compartments in the carriages, only reserved seats, however, it is possible to create personal space by closing the curtain from prying eyes.

The sleeping places are located in the same way as in our reserved seats on the side, but they are longer (195 cm) due to the fact that the traveler’s legs are retracted into a “box”, which at the same time serves as a table for another.

Photo from cfts.org.ua

At the same time, the upper ones are located offset from each other, as if our two side shelves were next to each other.

Photo from cfts.org.ua

As a result, we see that there is a passage in the middle of the car, and two rows of seats on the sides. There are stairs for those traveling upstairs. There is enough space on the second shelf for not only lying, but also sitting.

One of the main advantages is that all places can be closed with curtains, creating a comfort zone for yourself so that no one disturbs you.

Each passenger has his own table, socket and light bulb.

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A sort of railroad predator with an elongated, rounded muzzle. And although such roads are indeed rapidly developing in China, most ordinary Chinese travel by regular “slow” trains. And at least half of them travel in reserved seat carriages. They are not like ours - three-tiered and with a passage, and this is a whole road world with its own laws.

To be honest, at first I was afraid of the reserved seat there. Plunging into a dense human sea of ​​a completely unfamiliar composition is quite exciting. It seemed that everything there was filled with poor Chinese and everything around was unclear. So on the first expedition, almost until the very end, I traveled either on high-speed trains or in a compartment. And only before leaving (from Yan’an to Beijing) did he take the risk of riding in a reserved seat for fun. It turned out to be quite normal and not scary at all. Yes, there are some nuances. But they are surmountable.

In the Second Chinese Expedition we had to deal closely with the plazaart. I didn’t have pre-purchased tickets for most of the route, and a lot had to be decided along the way. There are no tickets for 1-3 days in advance for many destinations, except reserved seats or seatless ones. It’s something like in the USSR: there are a lot of trains, the traffic intensity is very high, and so is the turnover of tickets. Therefore, the reserved seat card really helped out - during my travels I had to use it six times and save many nights in hotels. The main thing is to try to take it down or into the middle. Along the way, I also broke the pattern that in the Celestial Empire only losers from the lower social strata travel on reserved seats. Nothing like this! Those who travel in reserved seat seats are mostly those who simply weren’t lucky enough to get a compartment at the ticket office. And not those who want to save money.

So now I’ll tell you in pictures about the Chinese reserved seat.
And about how they are building their own local road world.

The Chinese reserved seat is not the same as ours: three tiers of shelves and an aisle with seats on the side

2. Well, let's move to the sultry autumn island of Hainan and at Haikou station late in the evening we will board a reserved seat to go to Guangzhou?

3. So, the first one on the Second Expedition I got was car No. 17 of the K1168 train. I took it literally an hour and a half before departure, because until the last minute I hoped that I could find a direct ferry to Guangzhou with an overnight stay. But, having passed both ports in Haikou, I got discouraged and had to change the plan. A passenger on a train is given this card for the duration of the trip. The car number (17) and the section number in it (13). The section indicates the location with a hieroglyph. As you can see, the bottom one is T with a dash.

4. The very first thing the Chinese do after landing is to quickly start eating. 70% is kuksa, doshirak or something similar. This causes a particularly pungent smell in the carriage after departure. True, it quickly disappears from air conditioning and becomes barely perceptible. But it never disappears. Another specific smell that never completely disappears is the smell of jasmine tea.

5. Quite convenient in the reserved seat there is that the owners of the upper bunks can sit on the side seat. By default, it is believed that passengers in the lower bunks do not apply for these seats, but those on top or in the middle sit on them. It is already late (our train is loading onto a ferry across the Qiongzhou Strait), and almost all the passengers have gone to bed, but during the day the seats are almost completely occupied.

6. Over there, you can see the uncoupled neighboring cars in the window. Now we'll ride the waves for half an hour.

7. The regime in the reserved seat is observed quite strictly. Stricter than ours. At night, everything is literally turned off, except for the section numbers that glow in the dark. So you can sleep fully. In addition, drinking, loudly chatting, playing music or fiddling in your section at night is highly discouraged: the Chinese conductors can interrupt such a process quite rudely, because the rest of the passengers must rest. This is quite a big difference from our rules; ours is more liberal.

8. Linen in a reserved seat is laid out in advance and is always included in the price of the seat. Sometimes it turns out that the laundry is “transitionable”: if you sit down at a small intermediate station, no one will simply change it for you without a reminder. You can lie down in the underwear of the previous passenger :) However, when you specifically remind the conductors, they come and change them right away. But without a reminder, nothing will happen.

9. An important feature of any section in a reserved seat is a huge thermos with “Chinese” boiling water (temperature about 70 degrees). Without drinking bowls and thermoses, the Chinese cannot exist at all.

10. This photo shows the section numbers below the window. They glow red in the dark so passengers can quickly find theirs.

11. Passage of a reserved seat carriage. Designed to allow a cart with groceries or a person to pass normally and freely along a person sitting by the window.

12. The third shelf is located high, and climbing there is not entirely easy.

13. They usually climb there from the side, using this ladder.

14. Here the passage is already filled with people, it’s late morning and many are having a snack.

What kind of contingent travels by reserved seat in China?
At first I thought that these were those who wanted to save money or who did not have the means to buy a coupe, much less a luxury one. high-speed train. However, it turned out not to be so: those who are relatively poorer (mainly residents from the provinces) are in the reserved seat no more than a third. The main part reserved seat passengers are those who simply could not get a ticket for more high category. That is, the contingent overlaps greatly with the compartment carriages; it’s just that the compartments are occupied by those who took a ticket either much in advance, or caught it via the Internet. Tickets now sell in China for 20 days, but previously (more recently) it was only for 10. This is especially true popular destinations or general holidays: it’s impossible to get a ticket five days in advance, the demand for them is so great. Because of this, I was unable to get to Chongqing, which I had to skip - and precisely because of the lack of suitable tickets.

So in the reserved seat you can meet a student of a capital university, an engineer from Manchuria, dock workers from coastal ports, and a wild peasant woman from a remote province. In a word, a real hodgepodge.

How does a reserved seat differ from a coupe, besides comfort? Greater freedom of communication.
In principle, the people here are friendly, there are few “rogue merchants” (through whom the standard tourist’s typical opinion about the Chinese is formed), and they immediately look at the laoi with great interest, especially if he is traveling from the outback, and not from a large center like Shanghai. During my seven trips in the reserved seat, I managed, for example, to very productively learn the hieroglyphs of food - and during the day I gathered about five “fans” in my section, who diligently taught me to pronounce words correctly, and at the same time demonstrated the difference in pronunciation in different provinces. Or, another time, get a master class in writing hieroglyphs with a pen. There is a whole art there - where to start and how to fill in the lines. True, I didn’t really remember anything from this - but nevertheless, it was interesting.

Sometimes you come across those who try to impose communication, but usually, if the interlocutor is unwilling, this is stopped quickly enough, by the neighbors themselves. Of course, my observation refers to the Laowai-Chinese relationship, and not to intra-Chinese communication.

15. Since the linen in the carriage is always laid out by default, the Chinese don’t particularly bother sitting on someone else’s linen, like we do - they folded a corner there, sat on a bare shelf, so as not to get it dirty with clothes. The Chinese simply jumped off and sat down.

16. Take photos in the reserved seat Very It’s difficult: for the first hour and a half you are the subject of everyone’s attention. Then they watch you for some more time - the Chinese are very unfamiliar with the very fact of being in a reserved seat. And only after about half a day you become part of the interior, they finally get used to you. So I had to pervert it as best I could: furtively, with a rotating screen and only a small camera. A mirror immediately attracts attention, and naturalness disappears.

17. The passages between the cars are always open, this is a feature of Chinese trains and I talked about them separately.

19. And here there is a full house in the afternoon. Those who were able came down from the upper shelves and all the seats in the aisle were occupied.

20. Approximately every three to four hours, a conductor walks through the carriage and cleans it. He passes twice: first with a broom, then with a plastic garbage bag, where everyone throws packaging and so on. There is no other way: the Chinese litter an incredible amount throughout their lives, and if you don’t constantly clean it up, they will quickly fill up the entire carriage with waste. And so the carriage remains relatively clean.

21. The Chinese drink as much as they eat. Actually, I drank a lot there too. The nature of food greatly promotes fluid intake.

22. Passengers have a lot of different gadgets, probably many times more than in our reserved seat in the provinces (except for the St. Petersburg - Moscow line). Seeing a book or paper newspaper in someone’s hands is a huge rarity; most people read text or pictures from tablets and large smartphones.

23. However, in the reserved seat there is often a specific ambush - de-energized sockets throughout the car. They keep an eye on this in the compartment, and I didn’t run into anything like that there. And here - three times, almost half of my trips. So sometimes there is nothing to recharge your devices, and you come to new town without energy. According to the standard, there are eight sockets in a reserved seat - four paired blocks, per section.

24. It’s time to eat, and the massive smell of doshirak with soy sauce:)

25. At the top you can see a shelf for the belongings of the upper passengers. It's almost at the ceiling.

26. The washroom compartment in a reserved seat always has 3 seats (in a compartment - 2 or 3). Here it gets polluted faster - there are one and a half times more passengers.

About toilets. They are dirtier than in the compartment. Sometimes even at the end of the route they are filled with water (this happened a couple of times).
This, unfortunately, is an inconvenience of a reserved seat. But it also depends on the train. If it is category T, then the toilet is clean. If K or lower, then alas. But there is also helpful advice: if the next car is a compartment car, go there. The guides don’t care, and the passage is open 24 hours a day.

28. Three or four times a day, starting at 9 am, a “nutritious” lady with a cart rides along the carriage. He speaks loudly and in a sing-song voice, and if you hear it, you’ll have time to buy it. When traveling, you should take ready-made hot meals wrapped in film or vacuum-sealed packages. It is better not to take open pieces from trays (I didn’t risk it). A set snack there costs around 15-20 yuan (second course with meat or chicken, salad, drink). Also remember to wash your hands constantly, before and after, and generally more often.

About a quarter of passengers take hot snacks, another quarter takes them with them (if the train does not come from the capital or Shanghai), and about half make cartons of kuksa (this is the most popular train food in China).

29. I almost always have a thermos juice in my hand. Without a thermos-column, a Chinese is not quite Chinese :)

30. Chinese railway workers outside the window. A lot of manual labor, less small-scale mechanization than ours.

31. The problem of sun protection has been solved in a very interesting way. If we have taken the path of abolishing curtains, and there is only complete closing of the window with a tight shutter, then the Chinese also put blinds on the windows. Precisely from the sun, but without completely removing the light. About half of the reserved seats also have LCD screens, however, they only turn them on in the evening and play centralized films. Beginning without fail with the party-style ones, and then all sorts of tearful melodramas and kung fu a la Bruce Lee.

32. The conductor’s second pass through the car with a plastic bag. About half a bag of garbage is collected at a time, the Chinese are masters at this.

33. On the road you have to drink Chinese tea, which is brewed at 70-75 degrees. Our large-leaf Ceylon is undercooked at this temperature. To be honest, after three weeks of being there, I really want our tea, and not the floral-herbal aroma of the Chinese ones. The ubiquitous jasmine is especially infuriating. When I returned home, I couldn’t get enough of our regular tea for a long time :)

34. Chinese workers from the installation of power lines. We were driving from Xi'an somewhere near Beijing. I managed to use my tablet and Google Translate to talk to that guy in the distance, who also had a translator on his gadget.

35. Climb onto the top shelf, evening. Ordinary life of a Chinese reserved seat.

36. Smoking vestibule. The smell of smoking is also an ambush here - for the reason that the inter-car passages are not closed and the smell of tobacco lingers inside the carriage. Therefore, if possible, it is better not to take the first 2 sections from the washroom. It is best to ride closer to the middle in a reserved seat.

* * *
In general, I must say this, for independent travelers: There is no need to be afraid of a reserved seat in China.
This is a completely adequate type of movement, although with its own nuances. Unlucky to take it into the compartment? Take a reserved seat. Try to take seats downwards if possible, it turns out almost like a coupe in terms of comfort. The middle is worse. The top is inconvenient, except for the option “drive only at night and get off in the morning.” You can draw the hieroglyph of the desired place on a piece of paper for the cashier, bottom place- this is a T with a dash on the right, see photo No. 3.

The photographs were taken on different flights of the expedition; I simply combined them here into one story for the convenience of showing different aspects of the trip.

22.04.2019 , 10:30 19877

In the summer of 2017, a new type of reserved seat trains was launched in China, which successfully serve night route Beijing - Shanghai. These two-story trains with comfortable carriages and personal space for each passenger were liked by both the Chinese and guests of the Middle Kingdom.

To bring to life the most daring plans of Chinese engineers, it was necessary to increase the internal volume of the train by 37% and raise the ceilings higher.

The first thing that strikes you about the new Chinese reserved seat is the absence of any division into carriages. Inside the train there is a long corridor along which you can walk from the head to the very tail of the train. The boundary between the carriages is purely conditional - there are toilets, washstands, and dispensers with free drinking water. And no vestibules that are familiar to us.

The seats on the train are arranged conveniently, with personal space provided for each passenger. All the shelves in the new reserved seat are located in the direction of travel of the train, making the corridor seem more spacious than in old-type trains with longitudinal-transverse arrangement of sofas.

There are no lockers for luggage under the lower shelves, but there is enough space for the heaviest bags and suitcases. For each passenger, disposable slippers, environmentally friendly pillows with buckwheat filling, and a set of fresh bed linen are provided. A soft, adjustable orthopedic back is screwed to the wall, against which you can lean to look out the window or read a book.

Each passenger has his own closed table without drawers or shelves. On the side of the next compartment, your table is a comfortable niche for your feet. Such an innovative organization of space made it possible to invariably high level comfort to increase the number of seats on the train to 880 units.

The passenger can isolate his seat from the corridor with a corrugated textile curtain and find himself in a cozy small room with individual lighting, clothes hangers, a USB connector and universal sockets that are suitable for European, American and Chinese plugs. If desired, the personal window can be covered with a thick opaque curtain.

In the corridor on the ceiling there are ring-shaped LED lamps, from which a soft but quite bright light emanates. At night, the lights are turned off, leaving only yellowish night lighting built into the lower shelves. As for personal lamps, their light does not disturb fellow travelers because they are in the “right” place.

The ladders along which you can climb to the top shelf deserve special attention. They consist of two deep metal steps, recessed into the partition, and a convenient handrail, thanks to which the top passenger does not have to step on someone's feet, dining table or bed linen. Everything is thought out to the smallest detail and made for the convenience of people.

The conductor's compartment is not in sight. But there is a minibar with Chinese noodles and drinks. So the train passengers will definitely not go hungry. By the way, noodles are a Chinese alternative to fried chicken, so popular on Russian trains.

The train moves smoothly and almost silently. The level of noise and vibration in the carriage is comparable to that in the passenger compartment of a car. It covers the distance between Shanghai and Beijing, equal to 1318 km, in just 11 hours. It moves at a maximum speed of 250 km/h.

The cost of tickets for this train is just over 6,000 rubles. This is the most expensive reserved seat car that can be bought in China. However, if you book tickets in advance, you can buy them cheaper.

You can see a review of the new reserved seat carriages of Russian Railways.

China is currently experiencing a high-speed rail construction boom. With government support and thanks to special measures, by the end of 2020 the total length of the high-speed rail network will reach 18,000 km. In technological terms, the organization of high-speed rail communication occurs through agreements on the transfer of technology from reputable foreign manufacturers, such as the Canadian Bombardier, the French company Alstom, and the Japanese Kawasaki. By adopting foreign technologies, China is striving to make its own developments based on them, for example, the development of trains of the CRH-380A series, which set a record for high-speed roads in China, about 500 km/h. But I traveled by train at a more modest speed - about 350 km/h, and I can say with confidence that if Chinese trains are not inferior in speed, for example, to the same Japanese Shinkansen, then in terms of quality of service, cleanliness and comfort, of course, they still have some way to go...


Chinese trains vary in speed and class of service. To designate each train, a Latin letter is used (for example: D, T, K, C, Z) followed by the train number or, less commonly, just the train number. I took a photo of one of my tickets with instructions on how to figure out what was written on it.


In principle, it’s not difficult to understand, but it’s very, very important to know - At which specific station of the city you need does this train arrive!!! If there is a transfer ahead, then from which station the next train leaves. In Beijing, as it turned out, there are 5 railway stations!!!
I’ll give you the Chinese designations for Beijing train stations, in case anyone needs it, because I’m confused myself:

• Beijing Central Railway Station ( 北京站 )


• Beijing West Station ( 北京西站 )


• Beijing South Station ( 北京南站 )


• Beijing North Station ( 北京北站 )


• Beijing East Station ( 北京 东站 )

If you are planning to travel around China by train, the following information about train categories and car types in China may be useful.
If the train number contains a letter G, D or C, then we are talking about high-speed trains, and these are the ones I recommend using when traveling, you don’t want to waste extra time traveling between cities, because these types of trains are one of the the fastest and most comfortable.
Train categories G: The fastest and best, reaching speeds of up to 350 km/h, daytime trains.
Train categories D: Second fastest. On some night trains long distance There are compartment cars available.
Train categories C: High-speed trains. They run between neighboring cities.

After you decide on the train, you need to choose the class of your seat; there are only 4 of them on high-speed trains: 2nd class, 1st class, premium and business. All seats are installed with a direction exclusively in the direction of the train, when the train changes its direction (I had this happen), the seats are turned over 180 degrees. Category D overnight high-speed trains have both compartment and luxury compartment cars available.
Advice (of course, based on their financial capabilities) - take premium or business class, there are seats for one or 2 people similar to business class seats on an airplane, in other classes there are 3 people each, and you yourself understand what aromas you will have to spend the whole time among way and these will clearly be fragrances not from CHANEL. In addition, you will be given a bottle of water and a bag of snacks, and for trips over 4 hours, a lunch with a choice of dishes will be provided.


Safety!
Prepare to be safe in the area railway station the relevant authorities treat with manic responsibility. All things will be inspected as when boarding an airplane, people are also inspected with special care, tickets and passports - EVERYTHING is checked, and at some stations this check is carried out twice! In addition, people seeing off and greeting are not allowed into the station, so you will have to navigate the schedule, train boarding area, etc. on your own.
Here comes the most interesting part of the “Marlezon ballet”J As I would put it, in China everything is oriented for the Chinese, so the scoreboard will look like this.


Those. at best, you will be able to identify your train number with a Latin letter (if present, sometimes the train number consists only of numbers). Next is the number of the platform and platform - a guessing game in the Chinese style. However, for experienced travelers like us, even such a board was deciphered, so we can now safely go to Mars!


They begin to let people onto the platform to the train no earlier than 15 minutes in advance, so you can find your way in advance on your own or try to find out from the non-English-speaking station staff where to run with your clothes, pointing your finger at your ticket with a silent question in your eyes (practice at home on just in case for a silent question).
Keep your ticket all the way until you arrive at your final destination, because you will need to put it in the turnstile, and they will also check it on the train itself.


They want trains exactly on schedule, minute by minute, parking at stations is only 1-2 minutes, so I don’t recommend leaving the car for smokers to do this. There have been cases when tourists remain in this way at the closed doors of the train without anything at all, but with a pack of cigarettes.


And lastly, buying a train ticket without being in China is quite difficult. Therefore, either rely on chance and buy tickets already in China at the station ticket office, but not for Chinese New Year- this is generally an impossible mission for any money, or use the services of a travel agency in your region, which will help you in advance with this issue.

Thinking out loud, opus No. 6. Traveling by train is sometimes interesting not only from the point of view of convenience. When you look out the window, you can notice something that you wouldn’t pay attention to when you’re at your place of stay...


Firstly, I was surprised by the perfect cleanliness throughout the long journey of the train, no garbage at all on the sides of the tracks. By the way, the cleanliness in China this time shocked me, not a speck, not a cigarette butt, not a piece of paper - ANYWHERE. It was interesting to know that recently all janitors and cleaners have been made government employees, and this has always been extremely honorable in China. And after a year of such work, all the doors of other government agencies in the country are open to you, so people extremely hold on to such a prestigious job, scrupulously cleaning everything around.


Secondly, the agricultural fields are perfectly sown up to railway, sometimes it even seemed that everything looked so perfect that you were traveling through Japan.


Thirdly, there were a lot of completely futuristic-looking industrial facilities, I was just staring at them. In a word, you won’t be bored on the road, and this experience will definitely complement your knowledge as a traveler.

In our opinion the train is the best remedy travel in China. It's clean and pleasant the vast majority of the time. They go every day, with very rare exceptions. It’s quite comfortable to be at the stations, and the railway employees are neatly dressed and friendly, just like all Chinese. In addition, the train is a great way to get to know the country from the inside, just by looking out the window at the landscapes passing by, or talking with people. We were amazed at how sociable the Chinese are! Chinese trains come in different types, and seats can also vary in comfort. And now more details. This information will be useful to you when planning independent travel across the Celestial Empire.

Chinese train categories

1. Type G trains — 高速 “G” Trains (High-Speed)

The fastest and fastest trains with the fewest stops are the most expensive. This is seating only. What’s the point of making recumbents if it’s only a 5-hour drive?)) They accelerate to 350 km/h or more. For example, such a train flies from Beijing to Shanghai in 5 and a half hours and costs from 550 yuan. The fastest train in the world, the Shanghai Maglev, accelerated to 486 km/h!

2. Trains type C and D — 城际“C” Trains (Inter-City)动 "D" Trains

Type C train

Also very fast. They have a little more stops and go a little slower than G trains. They have both lying and sitting places. For example, a train travels the same Beijing-Shanghai distance in 8-9 hours and costs from 408 yuan.

3. Z type trains — 直达 “Z” Trains (Direct)

Z type train

High-speed trains connecting Beijing with other major cities countries. These trains are usually night trains and go non-stop. There are different seats: seated, reserved seat, coupe. The Beijing-Xi'an distance takes 11 hours and costs from 275 yuan.

4. T trains — 特快 “T” Trains (Express)

Type T train

Also normal trains. There are all types of places. Xi'an-Urumqi (2500 km) takes just over a day and costs from 280 yuan. Such trains run all over the country.

5. K type trains — 快 “K” Trains (Fast)

K type train

These are exactly the ones we drove. They go a little slower than T-type trains. The carriages are usually red. There are also all types of places. Xi'an-Urumqi (2500 km) travels in 24 hours and 10 hours and costs from 273 yuan. They are late, sometimes by 10 minutes, sometimes by an hour....

6. No letter prefix — No Prefix (Common)

Trains with numbers without a letter prefix

The slowest and therefore the cheapest type of train in China. But it’s quite possible to go, since there is everything you need for your stay.

Types of carriages on Chinese trains

There are 4 types (classes) of cars:

1. hard seat- analog Russian electric train, that is, regular seating. It can shake the psyche of people who are not resistant to stress. But... it depends on how you approach it. If you like comfort, then travel in carriages of a higher class. The trick is that when seats run out, the box office starts selling tickets without a seat, i.e. standing. Our friend took such a ticket, but he had 2 days to travel! But nothing, he returned alive and well))

Schematic map of Chinese railways

And finally, a little video about the new expressway, connecting Beijing and Guangzhou. It's already built!

We hope this article was helpful! If you have any questions, ask, we will try to answer.

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