I don’t often take the train from Shanghai Hongqiao Station but as I hadn’t got a ticket, and because there are plenty more fast trains from there to Nanjing than the old station, I thought I’d ring the changes. The ticket office is, thankfully, inside the station unlike other ticket offices (Nanjing and Shanghai old station for example) where you have to walk quite a distance to get a ticket.
Hongqiao Station is more like an airport than a railway station and has a huge concourse with shops and cafes. Crowds sit quietly waiting for the gate to open to allow them to stand on the platform to await the train.
The fast trains to Beijing tend to start and finish from Hongqiao as it’s much bigger than the old station. The vast majority of trains go through Nanjing South Station rather than the old Nanjing Station too.
As far as getting something to eat and drink – the only place which sells anything remotely edible is good ol’ Starbucks. So I got a salad and joined the queue to get aboad the G156 bound for Beijing.
When you’re on the train it feels like an aircraft but with lots of leg room. The carriages are fairly peaceful and most people nod off – something that the ultra-smooth ride allows for. No rattling along a bumpy track past grazing sheep and quaint villages – here all you get is industrial wasteland and an occassional gloomy and wholly uninviting town (if the pollution level allows a view).
It’s always good to be back in Nanjing and what better way than 1hr 12mins at break-kneck speed… Ooops, best not tempt fate…. you can’t help but think of the fatal train crash outside Wenzhou (that the govt tried to hush up) when you’re going that fast.