The fastest way to Beijing from Tianjin

Although Air Asia offers dirt cheap flight to Beijing, they don't really landed in Beijing (Beijing Capital International Airport, IATA:PEK) but in Tianjin (Tianjin Binhai International Airport, IATA:TSN), a metropolis 140km away. However, landing in Tianjin and travelling between the 2 metropolis are still cheap than a roundtrip ticket to Beijing. Yay to frugal travelling! :D

While travelling with bus will take approximately 2.5 hours to reach Beijing, why not use a more convenient and fastest transportation, bullet train!

How to get to the station?
There are actually 2 options; Airport Shuttle Bus or Taxi

Airport Shuttle Bus

From departure hall of Tianjin Binhai International Airport, walk straight outside of the airport to purchase ticket at this Shuttle Bus Station counter.

Ticket to Tianjin Railway Station cost only CNY10. Although the counter is at international airport, none of them speaks english (don't panic, this is the time to use your Mandarin you've been practising). Or u can just point the destination at the glass window if u have difficulty purchasing your ticket :p Bus to railway station departs every 30 minutes and duration is 30 minutes.

Taxi

Metered taxi usually cost around CNY40-50 from airport to Tianjin Railway Station. It will take about 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic.


During my last visit, the bus stopped a bit far from the railway station due to some road closure and I had to lug my [heavy] luggage and tail other passengers to the station.

Tianjin Railway Station (back side)

Like at the airport, all your bags need to undergo x-ray machine for security check here. No exception. This procedure was effected since pre-Olympic 2008 and it gets extended to each subway station too.

The railway station is sooooooo big than I imagined it should! I was amazed at the massiveness and its modern interior. Nothing like any railway station i've been to (I haven't been to many stations to be honest). Well, I think it should be built like so to cater the billions population of China! For this station also connects to other cities in China as well.

If u need to purchase a local sim card, buy it here (near the entrance) at one of China's telco company. I couldn't find anywhere cheaper than here!


Purchasing ticket for bullet train need not to be in advance as there are 70 trips daily between Tianjin-Beijing. I opted to use the ticketing machine as it has english translation.

Sayra helping me buying ticket

Ticket is priced according to its class:
Top Class - CNY99
1st Class - CNY69
2nd Class - CNY58

For just 30minutes ride, the 2nd class seat is decent and comfortable enough. Seat is numbered and you'll get complimentary bottled water.

Just so you know, this is the look of the ticket and the important info u should be checking.

15 minutes before the train leaves, find yourselves queueing with the rest of these people. Did I tell u China has the largest population?

I was queueing impatiently to board the top 10 fastest train in world with them all and when I saw IT, I was super excited like a kid gets a free candy (it was more like 'jakun' actually :p)

 Oh yeah baby, that's the train :D

Let's see how the inside of this train in 2nd class coach.

The seat numbering

The seat

There's overhead bag compartment

Passage to another coach

Toilet

The complimentary bottled water

Ok, I guess enough about the interior of the train and its services. This CRH train is about speed y'all. It can goes to maximum of 350 km/h!

In 6 minutes;

And this was the fastest speed I captured during this trip; 

In exactly 30 minutes at 6.00pm, the train reached Beijing South Railway Station. And this is me, officially in BEIJING! Yippie :D

That's how u can travel from Tianjin Binhai International Airport to Beijing South Railway Station in total of 1 hour.

Beijing South Railway Station is another big railway station and interconnected with Beijing Subway Line 4. You can connect to any subway station from here. For me, here was the starting point of my Beijing's travel adventure :D I straight away making a ticket purchase to Datunlu East Station, where Steph's house is.

To end the day, I had my dinner (first meal in Beijing) at muslim restaurant next to Datunlu East Station.

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