Guangzhou
Bus and Rail
Long Haul Trains
Trains cover the 182 kilometers from Hong Kong in about
two hours (including a stop at Dongguan). Through Trains to Guangzhou
depart from Hong Kong at Hung Hom railway station in Kowloon and arrive
in Guangzhou at the East station in Tian He district. Trains operating
on this service are operated by China Rail and the Hong Kong Mass Transit
Railway Corporation (MTR). Since the merger of the Kowloon Canton Railway
Corporation (KCRC) and the MTR, Hung Hom station and Hong Kong ticket
sales are controlled by the MTR .
It is faster
and cheaper to take the high speed train (200 km/h) from Shenzhen to Guangzhou.
Shenzhen is right across the border from Hong Kong and thousands of people
walk over the bridge between the two every day. China High Speed train
tickets are numbered D8## and can be bought from ticket counters or machines.
A project is underway
to link the entire Pearl River Delta area with high speed (200+ km/hr)
train network. The Zhuhai-Guangzhou section is due to open in 2008, and
the journey will take just 56 minutes. Shenzhen is already connected.
This is part of a nation-wide high-speed network that is under construction.
Eventually, this will allow a 12-hour Guangzhou-Beijing ride.
A new express line
connecting Guangzhou with Lhasa, Tibet is now open. The 4,980 km journey
will take 58 hours. (¥869 and up.)
Bear in mind there
are two major train stations in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou East Station
services routes to Hong Kong, and other popular tourist destinations.
The Guangzhou Station is one of the biggest in the country and services
routes that go all the way to Harbin. Countless travelers have gone to
the wrong station and missed their scheduled trips. So be sure to know
which train station to go to, which is specified on the tickets. Metro
line 1 ends at Guangzhou East Station, and line 2 has a stop at the main
station.
Guangzhou Metro Subway
Guangzhou's metro subway network covers much of the city
center and is growing rapidly outward. The fare ranges from ¥2 to
¥12. Most of the signs and announcements are also in English. Tickets
are bought from vending machines in the stations. Bills from ¥5 -
¥10 or coins from ¥0.5 - ¥1 are accepted at ticket vending
machines. You can change smaller bills at the customer service counter.
The ticket is a small plastic token, which you swipe
over the blue reader at the gate to enter the platform, and at the exit
where you insert the token into the slot like a vending machine. Multi-Pass
and Yang-Cheng-Tong are also accepted and can be purchased at the customer
service counter.
Please note that most of these machines do not accept
old or torn notes. You can exchange old or torn notes for coins at the
customer service counter. Tell the officer at the counter where you want
to go and he or she will return your note with the requisite fare in coins
and the rest in notes.
Guangzhou
Metro Bus
There is also a comprehensive
public bus service that covers Guangzhou from end to end. By far, it is
the cheapest way to move around. Bus fares are ¥1 for the older buses
and ¥2 for the air-conditioned ones, although the older buses are
slowly being retired.
There are also 3
tourist bus lines, passing through many scenic spots in the city.
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