General

For all your train information there’s an app on Android (not sure about iOS) called China Trains. It shows trains between cities, times, prices and number of seats remaining. It’s incredibly useful when planning a route and gathering cost information. You can also use the app at the train station to indicate which train you want. Many ticket staff speak very little to no English, but they’ll recognise the train number.

Train to Lhasa to Chengdu

Food & Drinks
Snacks are very limited on the train. A drinks’ trolley runs up and down the train infrequently, it includes bottled green tea, red tea, orange juice and Pepsi for 6 Yuan each. There are snacks on the trolley, but nothing we recognised. There is no fruit trolley, unlike on other trains we’ve been on in China. There is unlimited free hot water in every carriage so you can make noodles or drink green tea.

The restaurant car has no English menu and the staff speak very limited English. Most people seem to bring noodles to eat and don’t venture here, it’s very empty. However, if you are in hard sleeper this is a good place to come and sit especially if you are a group of travellers. If you want food in the restaurant car write some popular Chinese dishes in Mandarin and have the waitress go through the list.

Toilets
Ensure you bring toilet roll! Also, there are sinks but no soap, so hand sanitiser is a good idea.

In General
There are no announcements on the train ( something stated on Seat 61). The landscape is pretty impressive but also ensure you bring a book or have something to do.

Chengdu

How to visit Mt. Qingcheng and Dujiangyan in a day trip from Chengdu.
Click here

Qingdao

For information about the ferries to South Korea and Japan from Qingdao click here.