High Speed Trains for Foodies

Spend the weekend easily in Beijing or Shanghai by train

There's another way Hongkongers can escape the city on the weekends -- take the high-speed train to Beijing or Shanghai in the evening and arrive bright and early the next day after 6am; the return trip starts in the evening and arrives after 8am in the morning in Hong Kong.

It takes 12.5 hours to go to the Chinese capital, and 11 hours to Shanghai. The routes run four days a week, departing from each of the three cities in the evening.

Previously it would take 24 hours to take the train from Hong Kong to Beijing, or 19 hours to Shanghai. Now the time is basically chopped in half. 

Train staff distribute food orders by seat number

On the inaugural train ride from to Beijing, several Hong Kong reporters jumped on board and marvelled... at the food.

They soon discovered that because the train makes several stops along the route, customers can use an app called 12306 and order food two hours ahead of arriving at the stop and when the train arrives, the orders are at the platform for the train staff to pick up and distribute. 

Passengers can sample local dishes, like hot dry noodles of gan re mian from Wuhan, and cold milk tea from Changsha.

While the Hong Kong media were impressed by the ability to order food like this, for mainlanders this is nothing new. Taking trains has been the way most laobaixing have traveled in China, and the improvement in technology in food delivery apps has made this all possible.

So does this mean more Hongkongers are going to ride the trains to Beijing and Shanghai to sample the food? The possibilities are endless...