On board the new sleeper train from Beijing to Hong Kong

121/2-hour journey comfy, but has room for improvement: Passengers

- Aw Cheng Wei and Magdalene Fung

The melodic cadence of Cantonese was ringing throughout Waiting Hall 13 of the Beijing West Railway Station on the evening of June 21 as passengers waited to board the new sleeper train to Hong Kong.

Train services from Hong Kong to Beijing and Shanghai, which were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, resumed on June 15 with sleeper trains introduced to the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

It brings Hong Kong in line with mainland China, where sleeper trains are a common and popular way to travel between provinces.

With the new sleeper service, travel time between the two cities has also been almost halved, from 24 hours to 12 hours and 34 minutes, as China’s second-fastest train – the Dongche, with an average speed of 250kmh – replaced the older ones.

Operated by both China Railways and Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, the sleeper service can take about 600 passengers each way. It runs from Fridays to Mondays.

The upgrade is part of Beijing’s drive to further integrate Hong Kong with the mainland.

Recently, eight growing Chinese cities, such as Taiyuan in Shanxi province, Harbin in Heilongjiang and Lanzhou in Gansu, have been included in Hong Kong’s solo traveller scheme.

The change, which kicked in on May 27, will allow residents in these cities to visit Hong Kong without having to join a tour group.

Passengers who have already travelled between Beijing and Hong Kong on the new sleeper trains told The Straits Times that the experience was comfortable, even as they made suggestions for improvements.

Sales manager Xu Yao, 30, who was travelling with her husband and their four-year-old son from Beijing on June 21, said she had wanted to try out the train after reading about it in the news.