Vientiane-Beijing by Land
Hi everyone, planning to visit Bangkok, Vientiane and Beijing in October this year. I am looking to travel from Vientiane to Beijing by land (train/bus) instead of flying. Has anyone done this before? Is it possible these days, and if so, how long does it usually take and what are the typical costs? Any advice, recent experiences, or tips would be really appreciated.
Yes, it’s possible now thanks to the Laos–China Railway. You can take the train from Vientiane to Kunming (about 10 hours), then a high-speed train to Beijing (another 10 hours).
Thanks DragonTrail. Which site would you recommend to book tickets from, and roughly how much does this trip cost?
Around 1700yuan for 2nd grade seats. The whole trip. First grade seats cost roughly 1.5 times higher.
You should definitely download the LCR Ticket app, an official app owned by The Laos-China Railway (LCR). This is the only place where you can book direct daily D88 train that departs from Vientiane in the morning and arrives in Kunming in the later afternoon hours. It has seats only (no berths). It is important to emphasize that this app accepts Visa credit card only.
Beside Vientiane, you can board this train in Vang Vieng or in Luang Prabang. If you do not manage to master LCR Ticket app or it presents itself as a non responsive, you can also buy your train ticket at the ticket office in Vientiane city or at the train station in person, but in order to be able to do that you will have to do some actions beforehand in order to receive/obtain a specific QR code to be allowed to do that. If I am not wrong, the only payment method at the train station is in cash only.
If you prefer to rely on a third party in obtaining the tickets for this particular train, you can use Discover Laos agency:
https://discoverlaos.today/tour/high-speed-train-ticket-from-laos-to-china
They are very reliable, although it is true that as a third party, they take some markup in order to earn something out of your ticket purchase for themselves.
Beside the, there is also a Bookaway.com:
https://www.bookaway.com/
They are also reliable, but they impose higher markup on this particular transaction.
It is also possible to book your train tickets through your accommodation, but here it is impossible to determine how high will their commission be.
In any case, you should definitely try LCR Ticket app first.
From Kunming to Beijing you can take a direct high speed train or a sleeper train. Probably the best one is the fastest G train departing from Kunming at 08:55 and Beijing arrival 19:35.
The best website for foreigners in terms of purchase of the Chinese train tickets is definitely Trip.com.
Tickets for the LCR go on sale two weeks before departure. Using the app requires a local phone number, but my understanding is that a Thai phone number will do - you could sort this while in Bangkok.
Thank you so much everyone, very helpful information.
