Q&a

Sun Herald

Sunday August 10, 2008

Danielle Teutsch

Q I plan to travel from Hanoi to Beijing by rail in early December and would appreciate any tips or advice.

M. Plahuta

AThere is a twice-weekly train service from Hanoi to Beijing, leaving Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.30pm. The train stops at the border at Dong Dang, then you change to a Chinese express train with four-berth soft-class sleepers and restaurant car. This train stops at Nanning, Guilin and Zhengzhou before arriving at Beijing West Station around lunchtime two days later.

The total journey is almost 3000 kilometres. You can buy your ticket from Hanoi Station (ticket window 10 is for foreigners). The cost is 2,317,000 Vietnamese dong, one-way ($150). Vietnamese rail is operated by DSVN (Duong Sat Viet Nam), and has updated fares and timetable information for the Hanoi-Beijing route on its website. See www.vr.com.vn, English version available. For some reason, the fares are quoted in Swiss francs.

Hanoi train station's address is 120 Le Duan Street, Hanoi, phone +844 942 2770.

For more information about train travel in Vietnam, including photos of trains, see www.seat61.com, which is run by a passionate English railway lover. There are some useful tips on this site relating to the Hanoi-Beijing line, such as that you must provide a Chinese visa and passport while buying your ticket, and that you can pay in dong or US dollars but not by credit card. According to Seat 61 this train cannot be booked online, although you could try emailing local travel agencies in Vietnam.

If you have any travel questions, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at travelshd@fairfaxmedia.com.au. Personal correspondence cannot be entered into. Only questions appearing in print will be answered. If your question is published, you'll win a Lonely Planet guidebook.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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