Buying train tickets in China on your own and without incurring agent fees is possible, but there are a few things you need to know first…
Buying a train ticket in China
It was with a certain degree of trepidation that we decided to travel mainly by train in China, as friends had advised it was far cheaper, quicker and easier to fly!
To go by train or to fly?
For us, train travel is definitely the way to go, so we decided to see if we could actually book tickets independently. It transpires that in China, unlike Russia with its amazing bilingual RZD website (the subject of a future post) https://pass.rzd.ru/main-pass/public/en, train tickets can only be bought online with the use of a Chinese credit card, Alipay or WeChat.
So what is the Frugal Travellers’ option?
One option is to use one of the many helpful online agents, such as CTrip or China Highlights… but these incur a surcharge of around US$5 charge per ticket, which we’d prefer to avoid, what with being Frugal Travellers.
The only option left was the old-fashioned queue, made easier by the super handy and highly recommended app, China Train Booking and our friend indeed – Google Translate.
Using the excellent China Train Booking app
We arrived in Zhuhai on the 4th April, just before the major holiday of The Clearing of the Tombs, and were naive enough to be shocked to find very few seats available for our planned trip to Yangshuo on the 6th April. We realised we needed to get to the train station ASAP to book one of the few remaining 2nd class seats.
I took screen prints from the app of the train we wanted, and from Google Translate of the date and seat type required – something I’d definitely recommend just in case there aren’t any English speakers.
Always look for the English-speaking counter
We were fortunate to find a counter with an English-speaking member of staff in Zhuhai, but not later in Guilin so were thankful then to have the screenshots prepared in advance, as you don’t want to hold up that queue!
The man was very helpful with his slightly hesitant English and turned the screen towards us to double-check the booking details. The actual booking detail were correct…
it was a shame we couldn’t check the names on the tickets, ostensibly from our passports, as Lee was now Kee! Luckily the passport numbers were correct, and this information wasn’t checked on the train anyway.
So after waiting in the queue for 20 minutes, the actual transaction only took 5 minutes and was far easier than we’d expected.
Points to remember when buying train tickets in China
- Take with you the passports of everyone buying a train ticket
- Check the China Train Booking app to ensure there are seats available on the train and in the seating class required
- Use Google Translate to get the screenshots of the date and seats required
- Be prepared to go through security scans to enter the station
- Be prepared to queue – even though Chinese can easily avail themselves of online booking, they all seem to want to head to the ticket counter
Check out what we got up to in China
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