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Q: Anyone ever taken the train from somewhere in China to Hanoi ?
Any experiences to share ?
10 years 29 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
The overnight from Nanning to Hanoi. Leaves Nanning in afternoon, arrives at border about 3 hours later, and in Hanoi in early morning next day. But you do not get much sleep do, clearing border, between exiting China and entering Vietnam is a slow experience. GThe train station in Hanoi is maybe about 20 Kms from Hanoi, will need taxi for transport to hotel, and be prepared to pay\, drivers do take advantage of tourists. Othewise, I had a 5 days visit and a good time. A felow foreigner had his valuables stolen from hotel room while he was sleeing there with his wife. Suggest you place a chair against door knob to insure it will not happen to you.
I second what HappyExPat said. I went from Beijing-Hanoi...it took nearly 40 hours in all. And the crossing is annoying...you go through the exit in China, travel a bit, and then have to go through the entrance process in Hanoi.
Hanoi has a reputation for sharks feeding off of tourists. I would research whatever hotels and other plans I make before I make any bookings to avoid shitty experiences. Otherwise, it's a wonderful city.
I flew to Hanoi and went to Guangzhou on land from there.
In Hanoi all hotels will be able to help with a trip to Nanning. I took the bus in the morning - I think there are only few trains. I paid around 200 RMB for that. It was painless and I slept all the way except when crossing the border. I think it took 5-6 hours in total.
I got off at a bus station and paid a black taxi 50 RMB to take me to the train station - The queue to the real taxis was huge!
From Nanning I took the sleeper train to Guangzhou (East) a few hours later. I was lucky to get a ticket right away.
The ticket cost 297 RMB in a K train, soft sleeper. I think it took 11 hours.
In Hanoi many of the taxis are cheating. Their meter is running twice (or faster) the normal speed so the same trip cost between 20 to 60 RMB for me. I don't know any way to avoid this, but the fares are generally cheap anyway.
Most of Scandinavia gets15 days visa-on-arrival in case you didn't know. The guy in the immigration counter asked me for money a few times, but I just kept insisting it was free. The guy at my friends counter didn't try to ask for money.
