On the ground
Booking trains on 12306
The full guide and its references are available below.
Set up the official railway app with your passport, buy, change and refund tickets, and get through the station with no paper ticket at all.
Which way to book
There are two sensible ways to buy a train ticket as a visitor: the railway’s own platform, 12306 (铁路12306), or an agency such as Trip.com that buys on 12306 for you. Both give you the same ticket on the same train, linked to your passport. We recommend 12306: it is the source, there is no middleman between you and a refund, and the English app is now good enough for most trips.
An agency that books on 12306 for you
Passport, email, verification
Directly, by the rules below
If 12306 verification stalls
If 12306 will not verify you in time, or your card keeps being declined, Trip.com is the reliable fallback. That is an affiliate link: a booking through it earns us a small commission at no cost to you, and it does not change our recommendation (how this works).
Set up 12306
Do this at home, a week or more before your first train. Registration takes minutes; verification can take days.
Install the Railway 12306 app from your app store, or open the English site at 12306.cn/en. Switch the app to English in its settings.
Tap Register, choose Passport as the document type and enter your name, number and nationality exactly as they appear on the bio page. Foreign passport holders register with an email address.
Open the activation email from 12306 and click the link. You cannot buy anything until the account is active.
Wait for identity verification. It is often automatic; check the status on your personal information page, where it reads Verified when you are done.
Add a payment card, then add anyone you are booking for to your passenger list. Each of them has to be verified too.
If verification does not go through
Upload a photo of your passport bio page and a photo of yourself holding it open, from the personal information page. Manual checks usually take three to five working days, which is why you start early. Otherwise, take your passport to the ticket office at any mainland station, or at Hong Kong West Kowloon, and staff will verify you on the spot.
Your details must match your passport character for character. Before you upload photos, check for a missing middle name, a surname and given name in the wrong boxes, or the wrong nationality.
A person can sit on the passenger lists of at most five 12306 accounts, which only matters if several friends each try to add the same companion.
Buying a ticket
Search by city rather than station at first: big cities have several stations, and the fastest train may leave from the one you have not heard of. The list shows the train number, the times, the journey length and what is left in each class.
Sales hours05:00–01:00
ChangesOne per ticket
- ✓Tickets go on sale 15 days ahead , the day of travel included. Each station releases its trains at a set time of day, so for a busy holiday train be ready when sales open.
- ✓Pay within 30 minutes of placing the order, or the seats go back on sale. 12306 takes international Visa and Mastercard cards as well as UnionPay; if your card is declined, try another before giving up.
- ✓Seats are assigned on the English version; you cannot choose a window. The Chinese version of the app has more options, if you can find your way around it.
- ✓Sold out is not always final. The waitlist (候补) is only on the Chinese version. In English, check again a day or two later, when people change plans, or look at a slower train or a nearby station.
- ✓Children under 6 travel free with an adult if they do not need their own seat, one child per adult. Ages 6 to 13 pay a child fare, roughly half. From 14, a full fare.
There is no ticket to print or collect. After payment the ticket is attached to your passport number, and the booking confirmation in the app is all the record you need.
Classes and seat letters
Second class is fine for almost every trip. The seat letters, what each class looks like and where the luggage goes are in Getting around.
Changing and refunding
You can change a ticket once, to a different date, train or seat, between the same stations. A refund is quick in the app, and the fee depends on how close to departure you are.
Free refund8+ days out
- ✓Bought the wrong ticket? Since January 2026 a refund is free if you ask within 30 minutes of paying and the train leaves more than four hours later. It works for one order per day, and not for tickets you have changed or bought through the waitlist.
- ✓Changing train is free more than 48 hours before departure, and free at any time if the new train leaves on the same day as the old one. Moving to a train on a later day costs 5% of the fare between 24 and 48 hours out, and 15% inside 24 hours.
- ✓Minimum fee for a refund is 2 yuan. Around Spring Festival, refunds of changed tickets cost a flat 20%.
- ✓Money goes back to the card or wallet you paid with.
At the station
Stations are large, and you go through two checks before you reach the platform. Leave more time than you think.
Show your passport at the entrance, where staff check your identity, and put your bags through the scanner.
Find your train number on the departure boards and walk to the waiting area and gate it shows.
When boarding opens, go through the ticket gates. Some gates read a passport on the scanner; if yours does not, or you are unsure, use the staffed lane marked 人工通道 at the end of the row.
On the platform, find your car number marked on the floor and wait there.
At your destination, go out through the exit gates the same way, with your passport.
Keep the passport in your hand
Your passport is your ticket for the whole journey: at the entrance, at the gate and on the way out. A photo or photocopy does not work.
Sources
Checked in September 2026. If something has changed, tell us with the feedback buttons below.
1. Endorsement, refund and child ticket rules (China Railway 12306, English FAQ), checked Sep 2026.
2. 12306 online ticketing platform, frequently asked questions (MTR High Speed Rail), checked Sep 2026.
3. Create a 12306 account with an email address (MTR High Speed Rail), checked Sep 2026.
4. 12306 online ticketing platform makes travel easy: payment (MTR High Speed Rail), checked Sep 2026.
5. Railway 12306 launches free refunds for mistaken purchases (Huaihua municipal government), Jan 2026.
6. Guide to identity verification for buying train tickets in China (Southern Daily, newsgd.com), 17 Jan 2024.
7. Free refund within 30 minutes of a mistaken purchase becomes permanent policy (Xinhua), 29 Jan 2026.
8. Presale period and payment time limit, Spring Festival tickets (Beijing Daily), 31 Jan 2026.
Rules and apps change. Get one email when this guide is re-checked or updated, nothing else.
- ✓2026-09 — First published.