This is the single decision that shapes a China itinerary most, and the answer is unusually clean because the rail network is unusually good.
The five-hour rule#
Under five hours of rail time, the train wins on almost every measure:
- Stations are central. Beijing West, Shanghai Hongqiao, Xi'an North and their equivalents are on the metro. Airports are 30–50 km out, and the transfer at each end frequently costs more time than the flight saves.
- Arrive 30 minutes before, not two hours. There is no check-in and no luggage drop; you pass a security scan and a passport check and board.
- Punctuality is genuinely different. High-speed departures run to the advertised minute. Chinese domestic aviation has long had one of the worse on-time records in the world, and delays are routine rather than exceptional.
- You keep the day. A train leaves and arrives when it says it will, which is what lets you plan an afternoon at the far end.
Over five hours the arithmetic flips, and the long diagonal legs — Chengdu to Shanghai, Lijiang to Beijing, Kunming to Guilin — are where flying earns its cost.
The legs where it is not close#
Take the train: Beijing–Xi'an (about 4h20), Xi'an–Chengdu (3h), Shanghai–Suzhou (25 min), Shanghai–Hangzhou (under an hour), Chengdu–Chongqing (just over an hour), Guangzhou–Hong Kong (50 min). On several of these the airport transfer alone exceeds the rail time.
Fly: Chengdu–Shanghai, Beijing–Kunming, anything crossing into Xinjiang or Tibet, and Hainan. These are 7–15 hours by rail and a fraction of that in the air.
What tips a marginal case#
- An overnight sleeper turns a long rail leg into a night's accommodation, which is a real saving in both money and daylight. It is the argument for the train on some journeys well beyond five hours.
- Luggage. Trains have no weight limit worth worrying about; budget airlines do.
- Weather. Summer thunderstorms across eastern China cause cascading flight delays. Rail is barely affected.
- Booking window. Rail tickets open on a fixed window and popular routes sell out; flights are usually available later, at a price.
Two practical points#
Book rail as early as the window allows, particularly around public holidays. A sold-out train is sold out, and there is no standby.
Check which station and which airport. Large cities have several of each, and they are far apart — a ticket to the wrong one can add an hour. This catches people on Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Quanzhou especially.
For classes, booking on a foreign passport and what the letter prefixes mean, see the guide to transport in China; for how much slack a station actually needs, how early should I arrive at a Chinese train station?