Chinese train cuisine

[elfin]

This summer we will be taking overland-overnight trains in China ending in Shanghai. We are independent, budget travellers with two toddlers. How is the food served on the trains? We would be having all meals on board. Are their food vendors on the platforms for quick take a way? Any advice,comments or observations would be most appreciated. Thank you.

[liuzhou]

Long distance trains have restaurant cars. Not very good and overpriced.

Vendors patrol the aisles selling snacks (some of which you may not want!) and usually they have a rice, meat and veg option. Again not usually very good, but basically filling.

Stations have vendors, but it tends to be the same snacks and rice meals that you get on the train.

Do what the locals do and stock up on snack type stuff before you get on the train (prices on the train are about three times what you pay in local supermarkets). Get much more than you think you will need. Instant noodles are popular (free boiling water on trains), but again buy before you get on the train, and not just outside the station.

That said, I try to eat and drink as little as possible on Chinese trains. What goes in has to come out and the Chinese train outlet facilities are something to be avoided at all costs.

But I love travelling by train!

Edited January 8, 2008 by liuzhou (log)

[DylanK]

I never saw a dining car until one time we were taking a train from Weihai to Xuzhou and the whole thing was packed. The staff of the dining car started charging fifty bucks at the door to sit in the dining car. But we got a free carton of instant noodles.

[jo-mel]

I've criss-crossed China by train, but it was ages ago, so I can't answer to the quality of train food today. But -- I have wonderful memories of WuXi Ribs from the platform kiosk in Eastern China. Bony and grisly, but absolutely delicious.

Also, this train trip (London to Hong Kong) was interesting in that as soon as we went to a Chinese train from the trains in Russia and Mongolia, the food improved so dramatically that everyone commented on it.

I always keep a food diary of trips to China, and the train food had great variety with some really good dishes. It all depends on who is in the kitchen at any one time, I guess!

[elfin]

Thank you everyone for your informative posts. After I do further research of the various cities we will be visiting I know I am going to have more questions about the food experiences that await!

[Fengyi]

elfin, hope it's going well.

Just an update for any doing the Hong Kong- Beijing-Hong Kong train.

It's excellent - truly enjoyable. The food ain't great though. About 25 kuai for a set meal if I remember - but do bring a good bottle of wine and some nice glasses and watch amazing scenery go by. The huiguo rou was quite alright, but the other dishes we ordered were disappointing.

Breakfast is a bit dire - there are cantonese, north chinese and western versions. We didn't try the western but the chinese ones were gluey and not very good.

The supply of drinks is minimal - do bring lots of water. Fruit juice is a good idea. They do not provide glasses for hot water.

But a truly wonderful experience besides the food - total comfort and a civilized way of travelling (Note: we went gaojiruanwo - so only two of us in a compartment with private toilet). The food is edible but I would definitely recommend stocking up on nice things before boarding....

Note that in Beijing, the entrance is placed such that you CANNOT buy snacks from the station snack stores before entering the train. Do get all your goodies with you before passing through the entrance to the immigration and customs.

Can I recommend Fauchon for some lovely pain au chocolat for breakfast?

[elfin]

We took the train from Shanghai to Xian-land of the terra cotta soldiers. The offerings on the train were terrible. We did not even see soda pops for sale. Plenty of bottle teas however. The dining car had a chinese broccoli dish with a brown-grey gravy-it did not look like oyster sauce. There was another entree that bears description. Maybe mabo dofu. The language barrier was huge and the dining guy said he could set us up with these two entrees and tea for our family of four for 50 bucks-and laughed. Needless to say we opted out. The morning cart had congee. Few people ate the train food. In contrast the trans siberian RR we took a week later the food was good but pricey. We took the turk-siv train from Urumqui to Kazakstan and the food was not chinese and was both limited and over priced. .

[Peterh]

We recently took the overnight train from Beijing to Xian. We had heard ahead of time that there would be a dining car. There was none. There was a snack cart that showed up only once, at the start of the trip. It included warmish beer, water, and juices as well as bags of snacks like nuts and such. It wouldn't have been good for a proper meal and it would have been hellish to try to keep toddlers happy. I'd highly recommend having meals off of the train, but also packing kid-friendly snacks.

Edited August 23, 2008 by Peterh (log)