This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original article link.

During our trip back to China, we ended up taking high-speed rail 7 times for various reasons. The three of us all had different types of identification, so we ended up trying several different ways to buy tickets and pass through ticket checks. Here’s a summary of that experience.

ID/Documents We Had

  • Me: Chinese national ID expired for almost 1 year, Chinese passport
  • Child: travel document, foreign passport
  • Spouse: valid Chinese national ID, China mobile number

Buying Tickets

I bought everything through the 12306 app and paid with WeChat Pay. I didn’t use Trip.com/Ctrip. The account was registered many years ago. It’s under my name, but the phone number on the account is my spouse’s number. Here’s how the different documents worked:

  • Travel document: cannot be used to buy tickets in the 12306 app. I heard tickets can be bought at a staffed station counter, but I didn’t try it.
  • Foreign passport: after adding it in the 12306 app, you can buy tickets directly, but before the first trip you need to do a document verification at a staffed counter. My child then used the foreign passport to ride high-speed rail 4 times. I’ve heard a foreign passport can only be used to buy tickets online 5 times at most, but I couldn’t verify that.
  • Chinese passport: after adding it in the 12306 app, you can buy tickets directly, and no in-person verification was required.
  • Expired Chinese national ID: I had added it to the 12306 app many years ago, and buying tickets was seamless.
  • Valid Chinese national ID: buy directly.

Printing Tickets

I never printed any tickets. We boarded directly using our identity documents.

Entering the Station

We ran into all kinds of situations at both large and small high-speed rail stations.

Foreign passport: use the staffed/manual lane for identity verification.

  1. Beijing Chaoyang Station: seamless
  2. One small-city station: the machine couldn’t verify the foreign passport, so they just let us in
  3. Urumqi Station: they asked which country had issued the passport
  4. One small county station in Xinjiang: we were pulled aside for separate verification and only allowed through after waiting a while

Chinese passport: use the staffed/manual lane for identity verification.

  1. Beijing Chaoyang Station, one lower-tier city station, one small-city station, and Urumqi Station were all seamless
  2. At one small county station in Xinjiang, we were pulled aside for separate verification and only allowed through after waiting a while

Expired Chinese national ID: scanned directly; extremely smooth

Ticket Check / Exiting the Station

Foreign passport: for ticket checks and exiting, we used the staffed/manual lane. Everything was smooth at both large and small stations, except—

At one small county station in Xinjiang, station police asked to take a photo using a police phone at the ticket checkpoint. Afterward, the officer even followed us to the platform and said they were just curious what a foreign passport looked like.

Chinese passport: for ticket checks and exiting, we also used the staffed/manual lane. Everything was smooth at both large and small stations, except—

At one small county station in Xinjiang, station police asked to take a photo using a police phone at the ticket checkpoint.

Expired Chinese national ID:

  1. Use the “Temporary Identity Certificate” service in the 12306 app to generate a QR code, then scan it at the machine. Very smooth. The 12306 app “Temporary Identity Certificate” can be requested at most 3 times per calendar month, and each one is valid for 24 hours.
  2. I also heard you can use an expired ID directly in the staffed/manual lane, but I didn’t try it.

Valid Chinese national ID: scan directly; extremely smooth

Ticket-Snatching Tips

A few more tips on snagging tickets:

Tickets are released 14 days in advance, and the on-sale time varies by station. Check the “Sale Start Time” in the 12306 app. If you don’t get a ticket, you can try:

  1. Waitlist. The earlier you join the waitlist, the better your chances. It’s also better to set a later expiration time for the waitlist request, since a large number of tickets can be released again a few days or even a few hours before departure. We happened to be traveling around the Dragon Boat Festival, and our waitlist cleared 3 days before departure.
  2. Buy extra segments. Routes from the origin station to the final destination usually have more tickets released and are the easiest to get. I used this as my plan B.
  3. I’ve also heard you can buy fewer segments, board first, and then pay to extend the trip later. But that can leave you with a standing ticket for part of the journey, so I didn’t try it.

Other Random Tips

Changes and refunds are pretty flexible. You can do them directly in the app. I also handled them once at a staffed counter, but that meant waiting in line.

Boarding usually starts only about 15 minutes in advance, so you really don’t need to arrive at the station too early. Security and station entry also didn’t take very long. Sometimes the station’s staffed refund/change counters look like they have short lines, but you can still end up waiting quite a while.

The smart EMU trains are newer, have less lingering smoke smell inside, and generally offer a better experience. That said, the onboard Wi-Fi on these trains is basically useless. Regular high-speed rail felt fairly noisy, and the seats didn’t always look especially clean.

When departing from a large station, you can pre-order food in the 12306 app. At small stations, you can usually only order snacks or buy food on board.

We rode first class twice. The seats were wider and bigger, but otherwise there wasn’t much difference. I’ve heard business class seats can fully recline flat.

2023 Trip Back to China Series

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. The account has a lot of excellent original posts, so feel free to follow it if you’re interested.