Beijing South Railway Station
Beijing South Railway Station serves Beijing, Beijing. High-speed only, opened 2008.
Station name and what to look for
| Chinese name | 北京南站 |
| Pinyin | Beijing Nan Zhan |
| English name | Beijing South Railway Station |
| City / province | Beijing, Beijing |
| Train types | High-speed only |
| Main lines | Beijing–Shanghai high-speed, Beijing–Tianjin intercity |
| Opened | 2008 |
Match the Chinese characters on your ticket to the characters above. English translations of Chinese station names vary between booking sites, but the Chinese name is the same everywhere.
About the station
Beijing South is the station for the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line and the Tianjin intercity service. If you are going to Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou or Jinan by high-speed train, this is almost certainly where you leave from.
It is one of the largest stations in China and is built on three levels, with the departure hall above the platforms and the metro below. The scale is the practical issue: the walk from the metro to a distant platform is long, and the security queue can be substantial.
Beijing has several main stations and they serve different directions. Beijing South is not Beijing West, and neither is Beijing station. This distinction costs travellers more time than any other single thing in the city.
Getting to and from Beijing
Metro Line 4 and Line 14 serve the station directly, which makes it the easiest of Beijing’s stations to reach without a taxi.
From Beijing Capital or Daxing airport, allow well over an hour by road or airport rail plus metro, and more at peak times.
What catches travellers out here
- Beijing South (北京南), Beijing West (北京西) and Beijing (北京) are three separate stations in different parts of the city. Read the last character of the Chinese name, not just the English.
- Allow an hour before departure. Security, the walk to the platform and the size of the hall all add up.
Other stations in Beijing
Beijing has more than one railway station, and they serve different routes. Check the full Chinese name on your ticket — not just the city name.
Other station guides in Beijing
Before you travel
Tickets are issued against your passport and there is no paper ticket to collect for most domestic services. Read the booking guide if this is your first Chinese train, or the seat class guide if you are choosing between a hard sleeper and a soft sleeper. For the station itself, the general station guide explains how gates and boarding work at any Chinese station.
All direct train destinations from Beijing — every city reachable without changing trains, with daily frequency and fastest journey time.
Station details are compiled from published railway information and are checked periodically. Facilities, station layouts and access arrangements can change — confirm anything critical locally before you travel.