to Beijing from...
When I lived in Taiyuan I travelled to Beijing fairly frequently. It's only five or six hundred-odd kilometres, and China does public transport, both intracity and intercity, really well.
The first trip I didn't do so well, but that's ok, it was only minor mistakes, the biggest of which was taking the bus there. But I learned from the mistakes and got the trips over to Beijing down to a fine art.
And that first trip to Beijing was quite the experience that really deserves its own post.
But after that I had things down to the point where I could make the thousand kilometre round trip in less than twenty four hours, and still have a relaxed time of getting some shopping done in Beijing.
It went like this: Friday evening head down to Taiyuan Station at about dinner time and get a train ticket leaving that evening - preferably hard sleeper, but soft sleeper if no hard sleeper was available. Somehow that always worked and I never had to settle for hard seat. I'd then get some dinner - Maccas was close to the train station if I was in the mood for something very easy, but there were other options.
Bear in mind that this was before the fast trains, the days of the old 绿皮车 - green-skinned vehicles. The train to Beijing took ten hours, so getting a sleeper ticket leaving in the evening meant the night's accommodation was sorted. Sleep on the train and wake up in Beijing in time for breakfast.
The train arrived at the old Beijing Station, the old main station in the middle of the city. Across the road was a fancy shopping mall - an immense building that inexplicably seemed to be mostly empty. However, it did have some good options for breakfast on the groundfloor facing the street, so off the train, over the road, fuel up.
Obviously, I wasn't overly concerned about hygiene if I was on a quick shopping trip.
After breakfast I'd then walk north up Beijing Zhan Jie and turn right onto Jianguomen Nei. Then east along Jianguomen Nei over the Jianguomen interchange and continue along Jianguomen Wai to the Friendship Store.
At the Friendship Store I'd stock up on coffee - real coffee, not instant. Instant was available in Taiyuan, but not the real stuff. I'd also stock up on reading material. Taiyuan had its Foreign Language Bookstore, which was good, but limited in that small town way. The Beijing Friendship Store had imported magazines in English, French, and German.
I'd then usually have time for a leisurely lunch before jumping in a taxi and heading around to the Lize Qiao Long Distance Bus Station down in Fengtai District. There I'd get a ticket for the next bus heading back to Taiyuan.
The bus ride was an easy six hours with a brief stop on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang. Three hours across the North China Plain, pause at Shijiazhuang, then three hours across the Taihang Mountains into Taiyuan.
So, yes, the aforementioned leisurely lunch could stretch the overall trip out to a bit more than twenty four hours. But at least once I did that trip in about 23 hours.
The year I spent working in Tianjin was even easier, in that respect. Tianjin is a lot closer to Beijing, for starters, but by the time I got there they had a fast train running.
I mean, not by modern standards "fast train", no. They were working on that at the time. But definitely a step up from the trains that took me from Taiyuan to Beijing.
I always say I was working in Tianjin for a year because almost every weekend and all of the public holidays that year I spent in Beijing. There were a handful of weekends I stayed in Tianjin because something was happening down there, but it had to be something special to keep me there for the weekend.
So the regular weekend deal was get up early on Saturday morning and go to Tianjin Station. Get a ticket for the next train to Beijing. I didn't often need to wait long. Board the train and an hour and a quarter of staring out the window at the scenery later, arrive at Beijing Station. Meet my then fiancee (now wife, obviously) and spend the weekend with her. Do the reverse trip on Sunday evening.
Public holidays were essentially the same, just with a longer gap between train rides. And then at the end of that school year there was that one last train ride up to Beijing.
Those trains were pretty cool. Double-decker carriages with plenty of space and reasonably comfortable seats. And if you were a little late, you could get a standing ticket and stand in the section at the end of the carriage where the stairs to the two decks met. It was only an hour and a quarter, so not a big deal.
I did hear a year or two after I left Tianjin that the new fast trains were up and running and the trip was reduced to maybe half an hour. I would've liked that, but honestly, an hour and a quarter is no big deal.