HK – Guangzhou
Hong Kong – Guangzhou by High Speed Train: The Best Way
As of February of 2019, there are about 34 daily direct high speed trains running between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Guangzhou South Railway Station (Guangzhounan). Journey time ranges from 50 minutes to 1h10m and costs are from CNY215 (HK$249)in a 2nd Class Seat, CNY323 (HK$374) in a 1st class seat. Besides, you can also travel by Guangzhou – Kowloon Through Trains, which run between Hung Hom Station in Kowloon and Guangzhou East Railway Station （Guangzhoudong）.
How far is Guangzhou from Hong Kong: the distance is about 180 kilometers or 111 miles.
High Speed Railway & Station Map
How to Take a Train from HK West Kowloon
Photos courtesy of Keith Wong, a Singaporean working in HK & ChinaTrain12306 visitor.
Hong Kong – Guangzhou High Speed Trains Book Online
As of February, 2019, there are 34 daily direct high speed trains running between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Guangzhou South Railway Station, taking about 50-70 minutes and costing from CNY215 for a second class seat and CNY344 for a first class seat and CNY452 for a business class seat.
You can check live schedule online at:
- 1. https://www.highspeed.mtr.com.hk/en/ticket/timetable.html (HK MTR site, click short-haul train timetable)
- 2. http://www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains/ (trusted ticket agent)
- 3. http://www.china-diy-travel.com/ (trusted ticket agent, Promo code: ct123)
Check Live English Schedule
- Check: China Highlights
- Promo Code: none
- Check: China DIY Travel
- Promo Code: ct123
- Check: Hong Kong MTR
- Promo Code: none
Schedule, Ticket Price & Duration
| Hong Kong West Kowloon – Guangzhou South | ||||||
| Trains | From – To | Frequency | Duration | Ticket Fares (CNY/HK$) | ||
| 1st Cls | 2nd Cls | Biz Cls | ||||
| G trains | HK West Kowloon to Guangzhou South | 34 daily | 48m-1h11 | ￥344 | ￥215 | ￥452 |
| G trains | Guangzhou South to HK West Kowloon | 34 daily | $374 | $249 | $523 | |
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For a live schedule & ticket availability, please refer to http://www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains/
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- Stations used in HK: West Kowloon Station (香港西九龙站, Google map)
- Stations used in Guangzhou: Guangzhou South (GuangzhouNan, 广州南站, Google Map)
- Top speed: 300km/h in maind land & 200km/h in Hong Kong
- Travel time: 50-70 minutes
- Train type: CRH G trains, Vibrant Express
- Distance: 180km
HK West Kowloon Station is located near Kowloon MTR station and Austin MTR station, both of which are linked to West Kowloon Station via subway or footbridge (just 10 minutes walk). Passengers who want to go to West Kowloon Station by MTR can get to Kowloon Station or Austin Station first, then walk to West Kowloon Train Station. You can use HK MTR journey planner http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/jp/index.php to plan your route and fares.
Guangzhou South Station: it can be reached by metro line 2, line 7. (see Guangzhou metro official site: http://cs.gzmtr.com/ckfwEnglish/)
How to Take a Train from Guangzhou South
How to Buy Tickets for HK – Guangzhou High Speed Trains
Where to buy tickets
Buy at train stations
In Hong Kong: You can buy train tickets with your valid passport at ticket counters in Hong Kong West Kowloon Station. There are 28 ticket counters & 39 self-service ticket machines there, but the ticket machines don’t accept foreign passport. You will have to buy at counters. The ticket counters accept HK dollars or Chinese RMB. Note: You can only buy tickets starting from or ending at Hong Kong (eg: HK to Guangzhou or Guangzhou to HK)at most ticket counters in HK West Kowloon Station. If you travel beyond Hong Kong (eg: Guangzhou to Shenzhen, or Guangzhou to Chengdu), you need to buy at the 5 designated ticket counters or using a ticket agent.
| Ticketing Channel in HK | Acceptable Identification Document | Advance Sales | Booking Cut-off Time (before train departure) | Payment Method | ||
| Cash | e-Payment5 | Mobile Payment | ||||
| Ticket Counters | Passport | 28 days | 45 mins | HKD & RMB | Visa MasterCard UnionPay Octopus EPS |
Apple Pay Google Pay Samsung Pay Alipay, Alipay HK WeChat Pay, WeChat Pay HK |
| Ticket Machine | Not accepted passport | 28 days | 45 mins | HKD | Visa payWave payWave MasterCard contactless Octopus |
Not applicable |
In Guangzhou: You can buy tickets at Guangzhou South Station, Guangzhou East Station, Guangzhou Train Station or Guangzhou North Station, etc. Just choose the one close to you. Be expect queue lines there.
Book with a trusted online ticket agent
If you are outside China, and want to buy tickets in advance online, you can turn to use an online ticke agent. Below are two trusted ticket agents who get positive reviews and recommended often on Trip Advisor:
- Buy at www.chinahiglights.com/china-trains/ (Sharon offers help)
- Buy at http://www.china-diy-travel.com/en/ (Promo code: ct123. Helen offers help)
- Service time: 24/7 hours Payments: Paypayl, Visa, MasterCard, Alipay, etc
You can place your order any time with the agents, who will buy tickets for you when tickets are released. You can check English train timetable on their site and select a window seat or aisle seat. The agents can deliver tickets to your hotel as well as English instructions on how to take a train in China, how to get to the station, etc.If you run into any troubles, or need to refund or cancell tickets or change trains, they will offer you professional help. A additional service or delivery fee will be charged by the agents.
China Highlights vs China DIY Travel
1: Book with China DIY TravelWebsite: www.china-diy-travel.com ( Promo code: ct123 )
Customer reviews: Tripadvisor
Team members: Lisa, Danny, Helen, Lynn, Jeremy
Pros:
- ChinaTrain12306 users can use promo code ct123 to reduce service fee.
- Helen (Chinese-born Australian) & her Aussie husband are expat living in China, also seasoned world travelers.
- They were very reponsive & efficient, booking price is reasonable.
- They gets recommended on Trip Advisor forum & positive reviews from customers.
- Kept you informed and up to date at all times.
- They provided very detailed & easy-to-follow instructions on how to pick up tickets, how to read the ticket, how to get to the train station along with photos, how to naviate the large stations.
- They offer printed sheet in Chinese to show to people (taxi drivers or ticket issuers) in case you needed help while there.
- Offer tips on what to see, do, and eat in different cities.
- They made youtube videos for customers about collecting tickets, boarding trains, making transfers, directions at specific stations.
- Provided emergency contact numbers including whatsapp numbers just in case you ran into problem.
- They even gave you Chinese translations to use at bus stops for buying bus tickets when trains were not awailable.
- They will try to make sure that you sit together on all the trains. They can also help secure all of you in the same compartment in a sleeper train.
2: Book with China HighlightsWebsite: www.chinahighlights.com
Customer reviews: Tripadvisor & Trustpilot
Team members: Ethel Fang, Sharon Huang, Iris Wang, Jason Li, Apple Zeng, Phoebe Ran.
Pros:
- They offer ticket delivery service , and can deliver to your hotel.
- CHT gets positive customer reviews on Trip Advisor & Trust Pilot.
- China Highlights is a top reputed online tour agency since 1998.
- They are efficient, responsive and reliable.
- CHT provides online seat selection functions to secure your preferable seats for free.
- You will received a helpful email detailing how to navigate rail stations, how to pick up tickets, how to board trains & some translated phrases if you needed help.
- They will email you alternatives to choose from if the class or train you want isn’t available.
- CHT has a great number of articles about China train travel.
- Jack used to work with the CHT train team, and known how they worked.
- CHT accepts various payments of credit card, Paypal, iPayLinks, Alipay, WeChat Pay, etc.
- CHT can even book you international train tickets from China to Vietnam, Russia, etc.
- One-to-one service.
Buy at Hong Kong Website
Hong Kong MTR Group has launched its online ticketing system both in Chinese and English version, where you can check train schedule, ticket fares and book tickets with your passport.After buying tickets online, you will have to collect them at West Kowloon Station.
Important notes: If you buy tikets on Hong Kong MTR official site, you are only be able to collect tickets in HK West Kowloon Station and it is imposible to pick up them in mainland China. So, if you start journey from West Kowloon Station to Guangzhou, and want to travel from Guangzhou back to HK, you should collect all tickets for both journeys (HK to GZ, GZ to HK) in West Kowloon Station. But if you start your journey from Guangzhou South, don’t use HK MTR site to book tickets but use a mainland China’s site as you cannot pick up tickets booked at HK MTR site in Guangzhou South Station.
When to buy tickets
Train tickets go on sale 30 days in advance for bookings online or 28 days in advance for bookings at train stations.
What are the trains like
Vibrant Express run by Hong Kong MTR Group are used to run along the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong Express Rail Link. The train set is based on CRH380A EMU high speed train, and has two classes of seats: second class and first class seats.
Visitor’s Travel Reviews
Travel reviews from Alexandra, a visitor of ChinaTrain12306.com who traveled between HK and Guangzhou by high speed train on a business class seat. Here is his insider tips:
More Bullet Trains You Maybe Interested
Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guilin, Xiamen, Shantou, Foshan, Guangzhou to Shanghai high speed train
Hong Kong – Guangzhou Through Train Book Online
The Guangzhou – Hong Kong Through train, or commonly called Guangzhou – Kowloon Through Train is an inter-city train service running between Guangzhou East Station and Hung Hom Station in Kowloon of Hong Kong, jointly operated by MTR Corporation of Hong Kong & Guangzhou Railway Group.
The through trains run 12 times a day between Hung Hom Station and Guangzhou East Station (Guangzhoudong) with some of them calling at Changping Station in Dongguan & one continuing to Foshan Station. Live train schedule & ticket price can be found at its official site:
- Hong Kong – Guangzhou Through Live Train schedule (official site)
- Buy Guangzhou – Kowloon Through train tickets (using a ticket agent)
Through Train Schedule & Fares
The timetable below are used from MTR’s official site.
Trusted Online Ticket Agents:
Option 1: China Highlights is a reliable online agency for China train ticketing. They get positive reviews on TripAdvisor & Trustpilot. Sharon and her team help you buy tickets & plan rail routes even deliver tickets to your hotels with a service fee from $6.
Option 2: China DIY Travel is also a trusted online ticketing agent & get recommended for their excellent service on TripAdvisor. Helen & her Australian husband, team are always helpful buying tickets for foreigners. ChinaTrain12306 users can use PROMO CODE “ct123” to reduce booking fees.
Hi,
If I buy a ticket from Guangzhou South to Kowloon West on the new fast train service it says I need to collect it in Kowloon west, which is fine, but do you know how far in advance you can collect it?
I’m going from Kowloon West to GZ South 10 days prior, can I collect both tickets on this day?
That’s how the through train used to work at Hung Hom, but I can’t fine any info for the fast train.
Yes, you can collect all the tickets at West Kowloon Station on the same day. You can collect tickets as late as 50 minutes before your train’s departure. Just collect them early.
Hello, i arrive to Guangzhou South from Yangshuo and then plan to catch a Hong Kong train. Is it possible just to change the platform or do i need to pass some control as i am leaving the territory of mainland China?This is the important question for me as i need to understand how much time do i need to leave between the two trains.
Thank you