Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

Excited by capping off your journey to Hong Kong with a protracted weekend in Beijing or Shanghai? A brand new high-speed sleeper practice service is making that risk simpler than ever.

Two new in a single day routes connecting town with Beijing and Shanghai entered into service on June 15.

Each trains depart 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 journeys round 12.5 hours and 11 hours respectively. Return journeys depart from Beijing and Shanghai at round 8 p.m. and arrive in Hong Kong at 8.47 a.m. and seven.29 a.m. These routes run 4 days every week, departing all three stations each night from Friday to Monday.

“Will probably be extra comfy and quicker, decreasing the journey time by about half, and can cowl a wider vary of locations, together with fashionable vacationer attraction cities,” John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief government, mentioned in a press assertion, referring to the earlier in a single day practice routes that related Hong Kong with China’s two greatest cities.

These intercity railway providers, Beijing-Kowloon and Shanghai-Kowloon, launched in 1997. The practice trip to China’s capital took round 24 hours whereas the journey to Shanghai was about 19 hours.

The providers have been suspended through the pandemic in 2020 and have been changed by the brand new high-speed choices that launched on June 15.

However whereas the brand new journeys do certainly slash the in a single day journey time by nearly half, the high-speed sleeper providers take barely longer than the daytime bullet trains already in service connecting Hong Kong and the 2 cities in mainland China.

Presently, the practice firm operates one every 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 journey then? The brand new sleeper trains won’t be the quickest option to get between Hong Kong and Beijing or Shanghai, however they’re an excellent choice for enterprise vacationers who must arrive well-rested earlier than commonplace workplace hours, in addition to leisure vacationers who don’t need to waste a full day on the practice or want to get monetary savings on lodging.

Every of the electrical a number of unit (EMU) trains used to service the routes has 16 carriages, together with 13 sleeper automobiles, two second-class seating automobiles and one eating automobile.

There are three varieties of seats to select from: Second class (and not using a mattress), sleeper and deluxe sleeper.

An ordinary sleeper class cabin consists of two bunk beds, sleeping 4 passengers, in a cabin. The deluxe model, solely out there on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route for now, includes a bunk mattress, wardrobe and couch.

Costs vary from HKD937 to HKD1,506 ($120-$193) for the Hong Kong-Beijing route and HKD682 to HKD2,128 ($88-273) for the Hong Kong-Shanghai route.

Passengers who need to ebook a seat can reserve their tickets on China Railway’s official ticketing web site 12306.cn. Be aware that for trains departing from Hong Kong, it’s important to search “hkwestkowloon.”

Worldwide vacationers may ebook by means of ticketing platforms comparable to Journey.com or purchase their tickets on the West Kowloon Station immediately.

A joint immigration checkpoint inside West Kowloon Station permits passengers to keep away from extra checks when crossing the border out and in of Hong Kong. Nonetheless, vacationers nonetheless must have a legitimate China visa or journey doc to trip the practice. (Though a part of China, Hong Kong is ruled beneath a separate authorized framework.)

Opened in 2018, the 26-kilometer Hong Kong high-speed railway is part of the bigger Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Specific Rail Hyperlink (XRL).

Costing greater than $10.7 billion to construct, the Hong Kong part connects town with China’s 25,000-kilometer nationwide high-speed rail community.

However the venture, which marked the primary time mainland Chinese language legal guidelines got jurisdiction inside Hong Kong territory, stirred a lot controversy, even properly earlier than its opening.

The huge price ticket, the restricted touring pace (the Hong Kong part has a most pace of 200 kilometers/hour – a lot decrease than the same old 300 kilometers/hour as a consequence of its quick distance) and the political implications all forged a shadow over the brand new railway.

Controversy apart, the introduction of the Specific Rail Hyperlink offered an alternate option to journey to main Chinese language cities by means of 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 every day in accordance with official figures.