How About Meals on Tibet Trains
Taking train is a popular way to Tibet. Even if you depart from Xining, you need to spend 22 hours on the way. Therefore, what to eat and where to eat on Tibet trains are the problems concerned by passengers. This part, we will introduce something about this.
Dining Car of Tibet Train
Generally, the dining car of Tibet train is in the middle of the train and separates sleeper carriages from seat carriages. The dining car occupies only one of the carriages of the train, there are the only kitchen and dining room to supply 3 meals a day for all passengers on the whole train. The dining car is decorated with Tibetan characteristics, and the matching color of red, yellow and white conforms to the color of the Potala Palace well. This dining room has seats for 40-50 passengers with wide window as a favorite place for travelers to enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner while enjoying the beautiful scenery along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Compared with the narrow sleeper berth compartment, the dining car is a comfortable place to relax and watch the incredible landscape pass by outside. Outside of having a meal there, you will be required to at least buy a beer or a cup of tea to sit there, otherwise you will be required to get back to your own compartment.
Food Cart on Tibet Trains
In addition to the dining car, boxed meals will be brought to each carriage by a small food cart for the convenience of passengers. At meal times, the dining room may not be a good place because of the crowds, the train attendants will bring the food carts through the train carriages at those times to offer lunch or dinner packages. These are only Chinese-style fast food such as rice, fried vegetables and fried pork, and they normally cost around 20 CNY each. Besides, drinks such as coffee, tea, orange juice, milk tea, etc., are available.
Menu on the Tibet Trains
The dining car of Tibet trains provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, all of which are of Chinese style. For breakfast, passengers will mainly be served with steamed bread, steamed stuffed bun, soy milk, pickles, porridge and other traditional Chinese breakfast; For lunch and dinner, mainly fried dishes, such as scrambled egg with tomato and so on. The dishes you order in the dining car are freshly made, the food material is purchased from the big and medium-sized city. There are corresponding supply points when the trains stop, specific food materials according to the purchase situation, some common ingredients like potato, green pepper, tomato, cucumber, chicken and pork, etc., it may vary with the seasons.
Useful Tips
1. Food on the train is twice as expensive as you will normally find in the cities and the quality is not nearly as good.
2. The supply time of dining car is from 7 am to 9 pm, and the specific time may be adjusted according to the situation. If you want to enjoy the scenery outside the window while eating, it is recommended that you choose daytime time for meal. Usually, there is no time limit for eating, but in order to meet the needs of other passengers, it is suggested that tourists should eat as soon as possible, and do not linger too much time for taking photos after meals.
3. Bring your own food. There are hundreds of passengers on a train, but the dining car can only accommodate about 40-50 people at a time. It cannot take care of the passengers on the whole train. Moreover, the food on the train will definitely be more expensive, so many passengers will choose to bring their own food to eat on board the train. For passengers on soft and hard sleeper cars, bringing their own food also allows them to choose their favorite and customary foods to make train journey more comfortable.
4. Which food can be carried on the train? In theory, most of the food can be carried on the train, whether it’s cooked food, fruit, snacks, drinks, etc., but because many people will live in a common space for more than 20 hours, food with irritating flavor is suggested not to carry on the train, such as durian and other fruits. Also, alcoholic drinks are not allowed on trains because they are flammable. Food that is easy to corrode and cannot be stored for long is not recommended, such as cooked food. Trains to Tibet are centralized heating or cooling, the temperature and environment on the train is not conducive to the preservation of food, if it can not be eaten immediately, do not take it to the train. Passengers often carry food such as instant noodles in barrels, self-heated meals, canned snacks, beef jerky, chocolate, bread, etc. Melon seeds, peanuts, dried fruit are also common train snacks for chat.
5. It is easy to dry mouth on the train. Drink more water and eat more fruit can replenish water and avoid discomfort caused by lack of water. You can bring some peeled grapefruit, cucumbers and other food that can be eaten raw. You can also buy the meal box, snacks and some fruit on the train.
