Beijing is the railway hub of the nation, with trains to most provincial capitals and all neighboring cities. There are six railway stations in Beijing, of which Beijing Railway Station and Beijing West Railway Station are the major ones. The former runs mainly long-haul journeys such as Beijing to Baotou and Beijing to Shanghai or international trains including the lines directly to Moscow, Pyongyang and Ulan Bator etc. While the later is the largest railway station in Asia. Tourists can get to the capital cities of every province, most major and medium sized cities, autonomous regions (excluding Tibet, Hainan and Taiwan, the Beijing - Tibet railway will be operational from July, 2007) in China. The other two stations offer short-haul trains to neighboring provinces.

For both tourists and businessmen's convenience, intercity express trains run between Beijing and Tianjin departing Beijing Railway Station ten times daily. Cost for hard seat is about 35 Yuan and 45 Yuan for soft seat.
Train tickets can be bought at ticket offices in both Beijing and Beijing West Railway Stations. Tourists can buy tickets and reserve seats up to one week in advance (about 11 days prior during national holidays) and refund the ticket (less twenty percent cancellation fee). Passports or other regulated documents are required when buying or booking tickets.
Important notice: ticket demand always exceeds supply on national holidays, winter vacation and summer vacation and peak tourism season so we suggests tourists book tickets upon arrival in Beijing to avoid delaying your later itinerary.
There are ticket offices for foreign guests and overseas Chinese in the international soft-seat waiting room of Beijing Railway Station and Beijing West Railway Station. Today nearly all standard hotel receptions offer a convenient ticket booking service.
There are four kinds of domestic trains: express trains (with air conditioning), fast trains (with air conditioning), common trains and stop trains (which stops a lot as its name implies). Box lunches, water, and Chinese newspapers and magazines can be bought on the trains. You can also buy bread, crackers, instant noodles, sausages, beverages, peanuts, melon seeds, toilet paper and maps of China. There are four classes of seat: hard-seat, soft-seat, hard-sleeper and soft-sleeper. A train usually has 10-15 cars. The sleeper car has 12 compartments with 6 hard sleeper bunks, or 4 soft sleeper bunks in each compartment. The size of the bed is 2x0.8m (78"x31"). Pillows, sheets and blankets are provided. Each car has a conductor who does the cleaning, helps the passengers and gives the wake up call in the morning.
You will need to get to the railway station 30-40 minutes before departure. Check-in stops 5 minutes before the train leaves. Ticket is hard to buy during the period of the National Day (1-7 October), Labor Day (1-7 May) and Chinese Lunar New Year.