Me & City (Suzhou, China)

Suzhou and Beijing are more close! From today, the least time of the journey you spend on a  train between Suzhou and Beijing will be updated to about 9 and half hours, one and half hours shorter than the previous Z86(from Suzhou to Beijing)/Z85(from Beijing to Suzhou).

Both the old Z86 and the new D386 are direct lines without stops between Suzhou and Beijing. I remember Z86 was launched since 2004 and was preferred by many  travellers because just a night sleep you waken in your destination.  And today the new D386 is launched to instead Z85 for a more nice sleep.

Here are some useful information I collected about D386(from Suzhou to Beijing)/385(from Beijing to Suzhou)  on different aspects.

Time
Z86        7:55 PM~6:48 AM(11hours)
D386     9:38 PM~7:15 AM(9 and half hours)

Capacity
D386 has 2 CRH2E Motor train berth units including total 16 carriages. There are 1 dining car, 2 soft cushion seat cars and 13 soft berth cars with 630 rated passenger capacity in total.

Full fare
RMB 309 for soft cushion seat
RMB 615 for soft upper berth
RMB 690 for soft lower berth

Sites
From 2nd Nov. to 10th, Nov, D386 departs from Suzhou Railway Station and reaches Beijing Railway Station.
11st Nov. afterwards, D386 departs from Suzhou Railway Station and reaches Beijing Southern Railway Station.

If  you want to tour around the Jinji Lake, there is a very convenient and economical way I’d like to recommend that is taking the Jinji Lake Tour Bus.  It  is a circle line that covers almost all sightseeing spots around the Jinji Lake with a total length of 15.9 km.  And because it is a double-deck bus, you can have a more wide angle of view on the upstairs to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The bus starts at Suzhou International Expo Center and gets by 17 stops in total including Culture Water Gallery, Modern Square, Yacht Terminal, Haitang Yuan, Jinji Base, Rose Bay, Lake Viewing Corner,  Wetland Park, Water Alley Neighborhood, Ligong Embankment,  Park of Wind, Lunar Calendar Square, Lakeside Avenue, Park of Camphor(City Square), Ling Long Bay, Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center.

The tour bus is available from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM and the intermission is about 20-25 minutes. The price is 2 RMB no matter at which stop you get on and how many stops you take.