Train Types in China

Written by Vivi Updated Mar. 21, 2022

Train is a kind of common vehicle which runs on its special railway line. It consists of many carriages and is popular with passengers because of its high speed and low ticket price.
Generally, the train number starts with letters, which represents the types of trains.

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For example:

G refers to high speed bullet train
C refers to inter-city train
D refers to bullet train
Z refers to non-stop express train
T refers to express train
K refers to fast train

High speed bullet train, inter-city train andbullet train are the fastest and the most comfortable high speed trains of today’s modern society. Most of Their running speed can reach 200-300km/h in the daytime while 200km/h at night.

Train types

1. High speed bullet train

High speed bullet train is one of the fastest long-distance passenger trains of China.

High speed bullet train

Its max speed can reach 350km/h, but when running in different lines, the speed of train is limited at 200-300km/h.

2. Inter-city train

Inter-city train is also one of the fastest trains of China, which is used for short-distance passenger transportation between to close cities.

For example, the routine of drive of Beijing-Tianjin inter-city train is 120 Km.

3. Bullet train

It’s also called China Railway High-speed (CRH ), which is mainly running on the fast and frequent main line between two large cities with the fastest speed per hour at 250 km/h.

4. Non-stop express train

Among the long-distance passenger trains, Non-stop express train ranks only second to high speed bullet train with the max speed at 160km/h. Generally, it leaves departure station for terminal directly, with no stop midway.

5. Express train

Generally, express train has a few stop midway, most of which are large cities. The max speed of express train is 140km/h. Most of express trains have air-condition, and the seats can be classified into soft sleeper, hard sleeper, upholstered seat, and hard seat.

6. Fast train

Its max speed is 120km/h, with more stop midway than express train.

7. Temporary train

Temporary train operates at the peak season of travel, such as Spring Festival or National Day. These train will not appear on the official train timetable. If you have other choices, it’s recommended that you’d better not take temporary train because its slowness will make you delayed.

8. Ordinary train

The train number of this kind of train is only four figures without letter. It’s the most slowest train among all kind of trains, which has no air-condition.

Moreover, this kind of train always stop at many small stations, which may consume all of your patient.