Train travel is one of the best ways to get around China.

Travelling in a huge country like China, you might automatically think that flying is the best method to get around. But the scenic train route isn’t always the long way round. Did you know that China has the longest high speed rail network in the world? If you factor in getting to the airport (often located far out) and longer airport waiting times, it’s sometimes actually quicker to get the train.

Trains in China are fast, reliable and cheaper than flying. They’re also better for the environment. Most major cities in China have good high speed rail transport links. There’s even a high speed train connecting China to Laos!

I’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to train travel in China based on my travel experience. Read on for practical information on how to book tickets, deciphering the departure boards, and what to expect on Chinese trains.

Booking Train Tickets in China

In this section we’ll cover all the practical information you need for booking a train in China.

I remember the days when you had to physically go to the station to buy your train tickets in China. Or even if you’d booked over the phone, you still needed to go and pick up your physical tickets on the day. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, and you can book everything online nowadays.

Tickets are paperless and linked to your passport, so as long as you have your passport, you’ll be able to board the train. This ‘real-name ticketing’ policy requiring your ID to buy train tickets in China is something implemented in more recent years. It’s supposed to be a safety measure to prevent ticket fraud.

Train tickets in China are only released 15 days in advance. You can reserve tickets, but you won’t get an official confirmation until they’re released.

Where to Book Train Tickets

There are two main methods of booking trains in China that I use and recommend: Railway 12306 (the official China Railway platform) and Trip.com (China’s biggest travel agency). Read on to decide which one is the best option for you.

Note that other travel agencies such as Travel China Guide provide a train booking service catered to foreign travellers. They usually charge similar booking fees as Trip, but I it’s better to go with the bigger company (i.e. Trip) in case of ticketing issues.

Railway 12306

Pros: no booking fee, instant confirmation
Cons: can’t reserve tickets more than 15 days ahead

This is the official China Railway booking platform for all train tickets in China. You can book via the website or mobile app (available on iPhone and Android) – both have an English version. You can also open the Railway 12306 app as a mini-app inside Alipay.

I used the Railway 12306 mobile app to book most of my train tickets in China. The initial account setup is a bit cumbersome, and requires your passport details. You may need to complete the setup on the website first before logging into the app. But after that, the app is relatively straightforward to use.

You don’t get charged any booking fees as it’s the official app, and you get instant confirmation of tickets. On Trip, there will be a delay (usually only a few minutes) whilst they book the tickets for you.

You pay for your train tickets through Alipay. Note that Alipay charges a 3% transaction fee on purchases over ¥200 using an international card, but this will still be less than the booking fee charged by third party platforms.

The main downside of this booking method is that you can only book tickets up to 15 days in advance. At peak times (especially Chinese New Year), tickets can be sold out in seconds after they’re released, as many people reserve tickets on other booking platforms.

Railway 12306 is best for shorter distance journeys (within a province) and if you’re not booking too far in advance.

Trip.com

Pros: can reserve tickets 60 days ahead, good user interface, can pay with AMEX
Cons: booking fee, delay in ticket confirmation

Trip.com is a great one-stop shop for most of your travel booking needs in China. You can use it to book hotels in China, as well as train tickets and flights.

The key advantage of Trip is that it allows you to reserve train tickets up to 60 days in advance. When reserving a train ticket, you pay upfront, but your ticket isn’t issued until 15 days before departure, when they are officially released.

In the majority of cases, you won’t have any issues with booking the train you need, especially if you’re booking well in advance. However, if you’re travelling at peak times (Chinese New Year, May Golden Week, October Golden Week), there is a chance that tickets may be sold out. If that happens you are fully refunded, but it does leave you with a transport problem…

This happened to me when I was travelling to Hainan, even though it was almost 3 weeks before the actual Chinese New Year date. Fortunately, I was able to figure something out, but it involved frantically booking a last-minute bus and ferry package on ctrip, the Chinese language version of Trip.

If you want to 100% avoid this potential logistical nightmare, the most risk-averse way to organise long-distance travel in China is to book a flight. Flights are, of course, a much more expensive option. As an additional note, first class train seats are much less likely to be sold out, as they’re more expensive. Sometimes it’s still cheaper than flying, depending on the route.

Trip is definitely more user-friendly for non-Chinese speakers than Railway 12306, which doesn’t always do a good job of translating station names into English. For example, instead of Shenzhen North, Railway 12306 will display Shenzhenbei (‘bei’ means north in Chinese). When searching for a station, Trip displays both the city and province to reduce ambiguity, whereas Railway 12306 doesn’t.

Trip charges a booking fee, which is usually £3-6 per ticket (not per booking). This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does add up after a while.

Trip allows you to pay with ApplePay/Android Pay in your own currency without foreign transaction fees. For those with reward credit cards such as BA AMEX, this means you can pay for your train tickets/hotels AND earn points at the same time.

In summary, Railway 12306 is better if you want the cheapest price (no booking fees). But Trip is better for planning ahead and if you want a smoother booking experience, especially for non-Chinese speakers.

Check Train Prices for China

High Speed vs Sleeper Trains

China has high speed trains and slow trains with sleeper carriages. Most major cities have high speed train connections, and you can filter your search for high speed only.

Each train has an alphanumeric code. High speed trains start with G, D or C, whereas slow trains are denoted by Z, T or K. The fastest trains are G trains (short for Gao Tie), which can reach speeds of up to 300 km/h!

Whether you choose a high speed or slow train depends on your budget and time constraints. Taking a high speed train in China won’t break the bank, but they were definitely more expensive than I expected. I would say they’re comparable to UK train prices, although obviously for much bigger distances. Read on to decide which option is the best for you.

High Speed Trains

For high speed trains you can book tickets for second class, first class and business class. Obviously, these go up incrementally in price, with quite a big difference between second class and business class (often 3x more). There are also standing tickets, which cost the same as second class, but without a seat.

Second class seats, despite the name, are actually quite comfortable. The seats are reclinable, and there’s plenty of legroom (confirmed by my 6ft+ travel companion). There’s also a tray table and plug points. Basically it feels like a comfortable, roomy aeroplane seat.

First class has fewer seats per row. The seats are wider, and you have more space – this could be worth it for longer train journeys. It also tends to be a bit quieter, as there aren’t any standing tickets in the carriage. First class is usually 1.5-2x the price of second class tickets.

Business class is only available on the fastest bullet trains (known as Gao Tie). Sometimes trains have a VIP class, which is a step down from business class but fancier than first class. With business class, you get plush leather seats and even more space than first class. It’s 3x the price of a regular ticket and not really worth it in my opinion (which is why I don’t have a photo to show you).

Slow Trains (Sleeper Trains)

Slow trains are much cheaper than high speed trains – often a quarter of the price, so it’s a good option for budget travel in China. The trade-off is that it really does take ages (sometimes 15-20 hours) to get to your destination because China is huge.

For slow trains, you can book hard sleepers, soft sleepers, hard seats, and also standing tickets.

Hard sleepers are bunk beds in sleeper carriages. Each compartment has six bunks – two each of upper, middle and lower bunks. There’s also one or two fold-up window seats per compartment. There are 11 compartments per carriage. I say compartment, but there’s no door or curtain to the hallway, so there’s not an awful lot of privacy.

Lower bunks have more space and are the most sought after ones. Upper bunks are a squeeze, and there’s not enough space for you to sit up. Usually it’s slightly down to luck which bunk you get assigned. On Trip you can pay extra to reserve a lower bunk, but it’s not always successful.

Soft sleepers are a more comfortable version of hard sleepers, with softer bedding and more space. There are four bunks to a compartment (two upper and two lower).

Hard seats are regular seats on slow trains. These carriages are usually quite crowded, and there’s much less space compared with high speed train seats. They’re passable for shorter train journeys, but definitely not overnight. These tickets are very cheap, so you’ll typically see a lot more rural and working-class people in these carriages. There are also standing tickets, but this is really not recommended, as these carriages are already quite crowded.

Check the Station Name

This sounds obvious, but make sure you’ve booked tickets to the right place. Lots of places in China have similar-sounding names, and you could accidentally book the wrong one due to an unfortunate typo or misclick.

When searching for train tickets on Trip, it will also display the province and Chinese name. Railway 12306 displays the Chinese name alongside the English name, but not the province. If you can, try to double-check the province and Chinese name (check the city’s Wikipedia page if you’re really stuck). Treat it like a spot-the-difference exercise.

Here are some common ones:

• Beijing / 北京
• Chengdu / 成都
• Chongqing / 重庆
• Guilin / 桂林
• Kunming / 昆明
• Shanghai / 上海
• Shenzhen / 深圳
• Xi’an / 西安

Cities with high speed rail connections usually have more than one station. These often have north/south/east/west attached to the station name. Railway 12306 doesn’t translate these station names very well which can be confusing, e.g. Shanghai South station is displayed as Shanghainan.

Here are the four compass directions in Chinese:

• North = bei (北)
• South = nan (南)
• East = dong (东)
• West = xi (西)

Have Your Passport Details Ready

Booking train tickets in China requires you to input the passport details of every passenger. This is part of their ‘real-name ticketing’ policy, which unfortunately applies to booking most things in China now. After you’ve booked tickets once, you can save your passenger details in-app (on both 12306 and Trip) to speed up future bookings.

One good thing about this cumbersome system is that the tickets are digital and linked to your passport, so there’s no need to collect paper tickets at the station.

Next, we’ll cover some practical information about getting the train in China.

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Getting the Train in China

Leave plenty of time for getting to the station, particularly in peak travel periods. Don’t underestimate the traffic if you’re planning to arrive by taxi. Factor in a delay in pick-up time as well, as It can take a while to find a taxi (including Didi) in busy periods as well. In cities with a metro system, that may be a more reliable way of getting to the train station. Aim to arrive at least an hour before the train departure time – longer if it’s your first time getting a train in China.

If you do miss your train, you can actually exchange your tickets for a later train at the station, usually for free or a small processing fee. You’ll need to do this at a manned ticketing window, which may be upstairs in the waiting room area. If you booked through Railway 12306, you can also change your tickets directly on the app.

Security Checks

Chinese train stations have quite thorough security checks, which are almost airport-level. Only passengers with valid tickets are allowed into the station. On entering the station, you need to present your passport. Sometimes they also ask for your train booking confirmation – showing it on your phone is acceptable.

Then there is a security check, with an airport-style conveyor belt scanner for all luggage, and a walk-through metal detector. Your phone doesn’t need to go onto the conveyor belt (they don’t have small trays for personal items), but you should hold it in your hand as you walk through.

You’ll also be manually scanned by a security guard with a metal detector wand. Their thoroughness generally depends on the size/importance of the train station and how apathetic they’re feeling that day. Sometimes they’ll do an additional check of any bottles of water you have – either with a machine or by asking you to take a sip.

Waiting Room

In Chinese train stations, you need to find your check-in gate rather than the platform – another similarity to airports. Check-in usually opens 15-20 minutes before departure, and you’ll go through another passport check before being allowed onto the platform.

In bigger train stations, the departure boards usually have some English (not always), but the destination names are often only in Chinese. But don’t despair! Here’s how to decipher train departure boards in China if you can’t read Chinese (without needing Google Translate).

Departure boards usually follow the same format in China:

The first column will be a list of alphanumeric codes – these are the train numbers. Every train will have a unique train number, e.g. G267. You can find this on your train booking confirmation.

The next two columns will be the start and end station. Your destination may not be the last stop. For some reason, Railway 12306 doesn’t allow you to view your train’s stops when checking your booking (Trip does). You can find it using the search function – advisable to take a screenshot in advance, as the search function only displays upcoming trains.

The time displayed on the departure board will be the train’s actual, not scheduled, arrival time. This usually doesn’t make a difference, as Chinese trains are very punctual (except when it’s snowing, as this prevents trains operating at full speed). But if your train is running late, you won’t be able to identify your train by looking for the scheduled time.

Platform is sometimes displayed on the main departure boards, but is not that useful, as you need to locate the correct gate first.

The check-in gate will be a number followed by A/B, e.g. 6A. There may be one or more check-in gates for your train. You’ll be able to board the train from all gates advertised, but it may be split so that half the carriages board from A and half from B.

The last column is the status of your train. This is written in Chinese, but helpfully, it’s consistently colour-coded the same:

• Wait for your train (正在候车) – YELLOW
• Now boarding (正在检票) – GREEN
• Boarding closed (停止检票) – RED
• Late __ minutes (晚点__分钟) – RED

The smaller display boards at each gate only list the trains departing from that gate. It’s a good idea to double-check that you train number is listed there. The colour-coding for the train status is the same as the main departure boards, i.e. yellow means keep waiting, green means check-in is open.

The smaller display board will also tell you which carriages are boarding from that side. For example for G6929, carriages 1-8 are boarding from gate 2A and 3A. If it’s a long train, carriages 9-16 are likely boarding from 2B and 3B.

Getting on the Train

Much like taking a flight, your documents are checked again before being allowed onto the platform and boarding.

Make sure you get in the queue for the manned ticket barrier, as your passports need to be scanned and manually approved. The automatic ticket barriers only work for mainland China ID cards, and are not set up to scan passports. Sometimes the manual channel is marked as VIP or business class – as if all the stares haven’t made you feel like a celebrity already!

If the train hasn’t arrived yet, you’ll be ushered along the platform to wait by the correct marker for your carriage.

You may get yet another passport check at the door before actually boarding the train.

Tips for Getting the Train in China

And finally, here are some additional useful tips for getting the train in China:

• Book long-distance trains in advance to avoid tickets being sold out, particularly around national holiday periods. Use Trip to reserve in advance.
• Don’t forget your passport. You won’t be able to get into the station, let alone board the train without it.
• Always go for the manual ticket barrier (which is often the VIP route), as the automatic barriers won’t be able to scan passports. This often means you can bypass a huge queue as well.
• If there’s someone sat in your seat, don’t be afraid to let them know. This is very common in China, as there will be people with standing tickets or people who misread their ticket number (this could be you too lol).
• The train only stops briefly at each station, so if your destination isn’t the last stop, get ready with your luggage well beforehand.
• There’s free hot water on the train (both high speed and slow trains), so why not enjoy some tea or instant noodles?
• Feeling productive? Signal is very patchy on the train due to all the tunnels, so make sure to work offline. Once, I made the mistake of doing some writing on Notion (a cloud-based app) and then lost all my work as it failed to sync and then crashed.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this guide useful for planning your China trip.

Check out my other China guides to help plan your trip:
Getting Around in China
6 Essential Apps for Travelling China
Getting a SIM Card for China
How to Pay in China
How to Book Hotels in China

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