Hi we are staying at the howard Johnson plaza and are wanting to go to the railway station (high speed train)for beijing in August. How?

Most of the G-trains will start from hongqiao railway station to Beijing.
From your hotel to Hongqiao Railway Station, you can walk along the Jiujiang Road to People's Square Station to take the subway line 2 to reach Hongqiao Railway Station directly.

The subway fare is around 5RMB.

If you take a taxi, there is around 20km. If the road condition is good, the fare is around 80RMB. If it is crowded, it is hard to predict.

In my opinion, the subway train is suggested.

Thankyou for your help Gordon yes I think the train would be a better option due to the traffic as our train timetable will be in peak hour traffic . Also we are catching the train from SH to beijing so I suppose the same thing will apply . As this is our first time in china so we wanted to see abit of the country side rather than fly and we don't have the high speed trains in newzealand . Thanking you Sandra