How to Buy China Train Ticket Online

For more booking ways, see How to Buy China Train Tickets
 

Set your departure date. It should be at least half a month later because the pre-sale time of China train tickets is 15 days and agencies usually book tickets for their customers as soon as they are released.

If possible, try not to travel during the peak travelling periods like “Golden Week” of National Day Holiday usually from October 1st to October 7th and Spring Festival Travel Rush around Chinese New Year, because large amount of passengers make it difficult to order a ticket successfully, especially for popular routes.

The pre-sale time of different agencies are different. There is no time limit on TravelChinaGuide (abbr. TCG). Users of our websites can book Chinese train tickets whenever they want; but we recommend you to put an order as early as possible, so we can book it on your behalf at the first time once it is available, just in case the tickets sold out.
 

This is the easiest way and first choice for overseas passengers to reserve a China train ticket. But you need to carefully choose one from various.

Passengers can make their decisions by comparing the prices, services and the reviews from previous users.

 Price: Normally, the charges of online agencies consist of ticket prices and service fees, passengers can decide which agency to choose based on their quotation. The price of some well-known agencies is high due to the high service fee. However, price is not the only reference, some agencies offer low price, so do poor service which may ruin your travel.

 Service: The services of online agencies are also different from each other. Some do not reply to their customers promptly; some offer poor or none after-sale service to help customers to travel smoothly; some have very strict ticket change and refund policies…

TCG offers top-notch services to help our customers get a ticket hassle-free, including instant confirmation, 24/7 one-on-one dedicated service, easy cancellation, free reschedule and select seats for free…

 Reviews from previous users: Comments left by previous users can reflect the user experiences and the real service quality. About 3,000+ 5-star reviews about TCG have been left on TripAdvisor from the past users to show and recommend our service.

It's not difficult to do it step by step. But there are some notes to take:
1. The information of your ID certificate will be needed and the most frequently used is passport.

2. The name and ID certificate number input should be exactly the same with that on your ID certificate. For instance, family name first then middle name and finally given name, just as the order from top to bottom and left to right on your passport. The hyphen or apostrophe needs to be omitted. If the name column is not enough for your name, type in as many characters as you can.
Cases that Chinese Railway Tickets Cannot be Successfully Collected after Booking Online 

3. Besides choosing seat classes like first class seat, second class seat, and soft sleepers, China Railway now also allows passengers to select the seat location on some high speed trains, by aisle or by window, so does TCG. Do not omit this step when booking.
China train ticket types 

4. Make the payment within the required time frame and through accepted payment tools, otherwise the order will turn invalid. TCG accepts Paypal, Western Union, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

 Kind Reminder: After booking the tickets online, passengers can take trains at most railway stations only holding the passport used for the reservation. There are special manual channels for these passengers. There is no need to collect paper tickets anymore.