FAQ / transportation

Transportation

Airline Service
China has radical improvement in its civil aviation industry in recent years. Air tickets are no longer difficult to obtain.
Currently, China has 798 civilian aircraft of various models, of which 406 are transport airplanes with 57,000 seats and total tonnage capacity of 7,488. international routes, major domestic routes and popular tourist routes are flown by advanced airliners.
Furthermore, there has been a marked improvement in the construction of basic facilities. Currently, China has 132 airports, 13 of which are able to accommodate jumbo jet airliners such as Boeing 747s and 70 of which are capable of accommodating 737s.in 1994,China's civil aviation industry achieved a total transportation turnover of 5.84 billion ton/km, rising from the 35th position of all signatory countries to international Civil Aviation Organization to the 11th.
In addition, big tourist enterprises have their chartered service during peak seasons.
In short, China's air routes serve all the major tourist cities and attractions. All stewardesses have received standard training, and they can speak major international languages.

Buses
Most of Chinese tour buses have luxurious seats, large windows, a loudspeaker system and air conditioning.
There are two deficiencies with big tour buses. First, the seats are a little small for westerners. Second, they usually have no luggage compartments, so luggage has to be transported by a separate vehicle.

Roads
A national network of roads, totaling 1.075 million km, links all the cities, counties, townships and villages open to tourists. Expressways now stand at 1,145 km in length in 1994.
Transportation authorities support the tourist industry by increasing investment in and improving maintenance of roads leading to tourist attractions. Furthermore, they have made great efforts to beautify and afforest roads, and to improve management of passenger transportation. in recent years, China has built a number of expressways to speed up transportation. The most famed one is the Capital Airport Expressway that opened in August 1993. With the completion of this road, the time needed to cover the distance is about seven minutes. it is called "No. 1 Road of China".

Taxi
Taking a taxi is very convenient in major tourist cities. You can take a taxi at a hotel or along the street.
A reminder, however: take a hotel logo with you to show the taxi driver, so that he or she can get you to the hotel. Taxi service is available in more than 400 Chinese cities.

Train
Trains in China offer hard seats, soft seats, hard sleepers and soft sleepers. Train rides offer spectacular views of the Chinese countryside. There are shuttle trains between major tourist cities.
Trains travel at three speeds: Local, fast and express. Ticket reservation service is available at travel services and hotels. Express trains link Beijing, the nation's capital, with capital cities of all the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, except for Tibet.
A new kind of air-conditioned coach equipped with soft seats that unfold like airline seats has been put into service on trains. These trains are designed at speed of 160 km/hour with a capacity of 68 passengers per coach.