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A brand new high-speed sleeper educate sure for Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Station departs from Beijing West Railway Station on June 15, 2024.
Hong Kong
The Gentleman Report
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Concerned about capping off your travel to Hong Kong with an extended weekend in Beijing or Shanghai? A brand new high-speed sleeper educate carrier is making that chance more straightforward than ever.
Two new in a single day routes connecting town with Beijing and Shanghai entered into carrier on June 15.
Each trains go away Hong Kong West Kowloon Station within the night and arrive in Beijing at 6.53 a.m. and Shanghai at 6.45 a.m., making the trips round 12.5 hours and 11 hours respectively. Go back journeys go away from Beijing and Shanghai at round 8 p.m. and arrive in Hong Kong at 8.47 a.m. and seven.29 a.m. Those routes run 4 days per week, departing all 3 stations each and every night from Friday to Monday.
“It is going to be extra comfy and sooner, lowering the go back and forth time via about part, and can quilt a much broader vary of locations, together with well-liked vacationer appeal towns,” John Lee, Hong Kong’s leader govt, stated in a press commentary, regarding the former in a single day educate routes that hooked up Hong Kong with China’s two greatest towns.
The ones intercity railway products and services, Beijing-Kowloon and Shanghai-Kowloon, introduced in 1997. The educate journey to China’s capital took round 24 hours whilst the adventure to Shanghai was once about 19 hours.
Jia Tianyong/China Information Carrier/VCG/Getty Pictures
A passenger with a kid forums the high-speed sleeper educate in Beijing for its inaugural adventure to Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Station.
The products and services had been suspended all through the pandemic in 2020 and feature been changed via the brand new high-speed choices that introduced on June 15.
However whilst the brand new journeys do certainly slash the in a single day go back and forth time via nearly part, the high-speed sleeper products and services take rather longer than the daylight bullet trains already in carrier connecting Hong Kong and the 2 towns in mainland China.
Recently, the educate corporate operates one day-to-day high-speed connection to Beijing, which takes round 8.5 hours, and one to Shanghai, which is round 7.5 hours.
Why trouble with the longer adventure then? The brand new sleeper trains will not be the quickest strategy to get between Hong Kong and Beijing or Shanghai, however they’re a perfect possibility for industry vacationers who wish to arrive well-rested earlier than same old workplace hours, in addition to recreational vacationers who don’t wish to waste a complete day at the educate or want to lower your expenses on lodging.
Every of the electrical a couple of unit (EMU) trains used to carrier the routes has 16 carriages, together with 13 sleeper automobiles, two second-class seating automobiles and one eating automobile.
There are 3 forms of seats to choose between: 2d category (with no mattress), sleeper and deluxe sleeper.
An ordinary sleeper category cabin is composed of 2 bunk beds, napping 4 passengers, in a cabin. The deluxe model, simplest to be had at the Hong Kong-Shanghai path for now, includes a bunk mattress, cloth wardrobe and settee.
Costs vary from HKD937 to HKD1,506 ($120-$193) for the Hong Kong-Beijing path and HKD682 to HKD2,128 ($88-273) for the Hong Kong-Shanghai path.
Passengers who wish to e-book a seat can reserve their tickets on China Railway’s reputable ticketing web page 12306.cn. Be aware that for trains departing from Hong Kong, it’s a must to seek “hkwestkowloon.”
World vacationers too can e-book via ticketing platforms comparable to Travel.com or purchase their tickets on the West Kowloon Station without delay.
A joint immigration checkpoint within West Kowloon Station lets in passengers to keep away from further assessments when crossing the border out and in of Hong Kong. Alternatively, vacationers nonetheless wish to have a sound China visa or go back and forth file to journey the educate. (Even supposing a part of China, Hong Kong is ruled underneath a separate criminal framework.)
Jia Tianyong/China Information Carrier/VCG/Getty Pictures
Every of the electrical a couple of unit (EMU) trains used to carrier the brand new in a single day routes has one eating automobile.
Opened in 2018, the 26-kilometer Hong Kong high-speed railway is part of the bigger Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Categorical Rail Hyperlink (XRL).
Costing greater than $10.7 billion to construct, the Hong Kong segment connects town with China’s 25,000-kilometer nationwide high-speed rail community.
However the challenge, which marked the primary time mainland Chinese language rules got jurisdiction within Hong Kong territory, stirred a lot controversy, even properly earlier than its opening.
The large ticket, the restricted touring velocity (the Hong Kong segment has a most velocity of 200 kilometers/hour – a lot not up to the standard 300 kilometers/hour because of its quick distance) and the political implications all solid a shadow over the brand new railway.
Controversy apart, the advent of the Categorical Rail Hyperlink supplied another strategy to go back and forth to primary Chinese language towns via Hong Kong – and keep away from China’s infamous flight delays.
The Hong Kong station now gives direct journeys to 78 locations round China and a few 70,600 passengers use the community day-to-day in step with reputable figures.
