Arrived into Beijing around five and a half hours late and only just before our trains scheduled departure so we obviously missed our connection to Shenyang. This was exasperated by it being a holiday in China and holidays in China are hectic for travel at the best of times.
We caught the airport express to Dongzhimen station and transferred to line 2 for the connection to Beijing railway station. The connection at Dongzhimen is a little difficult as the older subway lines have no elevators or escalators and we needed to carry our luggage up a few flights of stairs.
Arrived at Beijing and Mrs woodyren headed off to the ticketing section to see what she could do about getting a new booking. Previous experience had me feeling quite pessimistic about our chances of a ticket at this late stage on a holiday and I was resigned to us staying in a local hotel and traveling the next day.
Luckily they exchanged our booked (and missed) reservation at no charge for a ticket on a train around 4 hours later. Apparently you are allowed one free of charge ticket change even if you have missed your train. The ticket was only standing room though but at least we would arrive back in Shenyang that night.
The contrast in travel from one day to the next.
From the uncrowded Finnair J lounge.....
To a 4 hour wait in a jam packed Beijing station on a holiday.
From the comfort of a lie flat sky bed……
To a standing room ticket where ever you can find a spot and a packed Chinese train.
Of course I managed to get an upgrade to the best standing room ticket in the train. Pro tip. You can pay porters to carry your luggage onto the platform at many Chinese stations. Mrs woodyren paid I think 20RMB for them to carry one bag and we got to accompany that bag with me carting the rest of the luggage onto the platform. This got us to the head of the line at a carriage of our choice and the pick of any standing room space.
My seat for the 5 hour train trip.
A final comment. Despite the difference in comfort levels I love the experiences either way despite the frustrations at the time.