Best thing about Chinese train tickets: they all (basically) look the same. They are still made under this communist-egalitarian idea that all comrades who travel by train are equal. No Business Class ticket is gold-plated, nor are hard seat or even standing tickets made on paper that Fido just rejected.
Worst thing about Chinese train tickets: it’s a complete mess. To the visiting alien (er-hmm… foreigner, rather…) the worst thing about the ticket is that the only parts of the English language visible are the ticket and train numbers, and the station of departure and the exit station. Everything else is in this hopeless (to you at least!) language known as — Mandarin Chinese.
Thank god you’ve this site — and this page — to refer to. Here goes: the most in-depth dissection of the average PRC train ticket…
(Note: Most tickets today come in either the red-pink variant or the light blue variant. Only the latter can be used at automatic ticket gates, which are becoming an increasingly common sight in many a modern Chinese rail hub. If you’ve a red-pink ticket, get your ticket checked by hand — non-auto ticket check services are available at all ticket gates throughout China, so there should be no problems at all!)
Jump to: A1 | A2 | B1 | B2 | B3 | C1 | C2 | C3 | D1 | D2 | D3 | E1 | E2 | F1 | F2
A1: Ticket Number (车票编码)
The ticket number is shown in two places: the simplified number (in red) at the top left-hand corner of the ticket, as well as the longer 21-digit full ticket number with dashes. Tickets bought in certain part of China (especially in and around Shanghai) will have up to 10 letters or numbers in red at the top left-hand corner; those elsewhere will have only seven.
A2: Ticket Purchase Location (购票地点)
The name of the station or city will appear before the final “售” character (which stands for “sale”). In larger cities, you’ll see either an abbreviation and/or one or more letters, such as “京 A D 售”; there might also be a circle around the last character. This is all normal behaviour.
This is important as according to present Chinese train ticketing regulations, you can only request ticket changes or refunds in the place you bought your ticket at, or at the station of departure. And you can only request these at the railway station — not elsewhere. Internauts take note: you won’t be able to request changes or refunds online; nor can you do that via phone booking.
B1: Date and Time of Departure (出发日期及时间)
This is written in the year-month-day hour-month format with trailing zeroes, and uses the 24-hour (“military”) clock system, uncommon in the US, but commonplace across Europe. Europeans will just read the date the other way (“22 April 2011″ — “22.04.2011″ — “2011/04/22″), but Americans will have a bit of “fun”, so to speak, doing it their way (“April 22, 2011″ — “4/22/2011″ — “2011/04/22″). (Of course, we respect your standard, whatever that may be!)
Note: Arrive at the station at least 20-30 minutes in advance. So, as an example, if your train leaves at 18:18 (or for Americans, “6:18 pm”), aim to be at the station around 17:50 or so — no later, in any case, than 18:00. This is because ticket check will end 5 minutes before the train departs. (Your ticket always carries the time of departure.) In especially places where the ticket checking is automatic, this means that if you arrive even with a split second of delay, the ticket check gates will slam right in your face at 18:13:01 when you should have checked in no later than 18:13:00.
B2: Car and Seat / Bed (车厢、席位号 / 铺号)
This is shown either as 01 车 002 号 (meaning Car 1, Seat 2) or will have a letter if you are riding CRH380 trains (where it’ll appear as 01 车 02A 号 or so).
The first character — ”车” — is short for “car”: you will want to get this right as in larger station, there might be separate queues for different carriages. (So if you’re in Car 2, you’ll need to use Ticket Check A4, but if you’re at the tail end in Car 15, that’ll be Ticket Check B4 instead.) On non-CRH trains, you must choose your carriage properly: you will sometimes be restricted to your carriage until the train start moving (which we think is a somewhat stupid move).
The second character — “号” — simply means “number” and refers to your seat number. On CRH380 high speed trains, they’ll end in a letter. For those keeping count:
- Seats by the window end in A and F;
- Seats by the aisle (for folks seven feet tall and the ilk) end in C and D;
- The highly resented “middle seat” (Second Class only) is best avoided by steering clear of seat B.
If your ticket has the characters “无座” (in essence, “no seat”) — well, we’re hoping you’ve legs of steel, as you’ll either have to stand all the way or shell out the big bucks at the dining car. (Your bum comes at a price, apparently: you will not be allowed to remain seated in the dining car unless you buy something to eat, drink, or both, in the dining car. Train freaks often wait by the dining car if they’ve a “no seat” ticket.)
B3: Class of Travel (席别、铺别)
Anything from Hard Seat (硬座) all the way to the hybrid deluxe seats/beds in Business Class (商务座), this is what separates a CNY 0.50 local hard seater from a Beijing-Shanghai deluxe one at CNY 1,750.—. Nothing’s fair. Check out our separate Class of Travel page for the details.
C1: Station of Departure (发站)
The place where your train adventure (or extra productivity session on wheels) begins. This is important, as you can only request ticket changes or refunds at their the station you bought your ticket at, or the station of departure. The station names are given in Chinese characters and either Pinyin or English, sometimes with CrazyInterCaps (LikeThis). (Sadly, the ticketing system in China does not use Macs, hence the Microsoftian practice of InterCaps isn’t a rare sight…)
C2: Train Number (车次)
If you can’t do Chinese, just neglect the “次” thing at the end, which merely means “number” (as in “train number”). In fact, if you forget every last thing on the ticket, just remember the train number. It’s anything from two letters or numbers to five (so things like Train G1, Train 1111 (yep!) and Train C2278 are all valid). Here’s our page on all the Chinese train numbers you will ever need to know.
C3: Exit Station (到站)
This might not be the final destination of your train, or on non-CRH trains, the station you get off at for transfers, but instead, it’s the station where you will leave the whole railway system. (Then again, things are a little different if you have another ticket with an onward connection.) If you have a transfer ticket on one ticket (which you’ll tell if you spot the characters “经由” or “via”), the transfer station is given right after the “经由” blurb, and is written only in Chinese. Little note: The “via stations on one ticket” trick can be a tad hard to pull off. We recommend buying separate tickets with confirmed seating (or standing space if you must) for each leg of travel.
D1: Ticket Price (票价)
Anything from CNY 0.50 to four or even five digits before the decimal point. If you see an incredibly cheap ticket going for incredibly long distances, these are more likely tickets bought by rail personnel than their counterfeit variants. For example, a CNY 2.00 ticket for a ride of about a hundred miles isn’t rare — provided you work inside the rail system in China.
D2: Payment Remarks (付款备注)
You might see total emptiness here instead: this field is optional. But just in case you see something that looks close to a Chinese character…
- 网: Internet. Please allow the rest of us to give you a funny look — you skipped the lines at a brick-and-mortar ticket office and got this ticket via the Internet!
- 折: Discount. Relief for those who think train tickets in China are overpriced: you’ve got a discounted ticket if you see this character!
D3: Ticket Change Remarks (改签备注)
If you’ve never requested a ticket change, go on with life as usual — nothing will appear here even if you prayed to the heavens. But if you made a ticket change, what you’ll see is most likely “始发改签”, which means “Ticket Changed at Station of Departure”.
Warning: No Lives Left. The Chinese rail rules regarding ticket change are like a mean version of Super Mario, where you’re allowed only one life or one go when it comes to ticket changes. You can only change your ticket once (when you’re doing so, you can change the date and time of departure and even the class of travel), and once that’s done, your ticket is set in stone. If you see “始发改签” on your ticket in this space, that means your ticket cannot be changed any more!
E1: Travel Restrictions (限制规定)
Most often, you’ll see the uniform “限乘当日当次车” (Valid for this train only). You can only use this very ticket for the designated train as printed on the ticket, although you can do a one-time ticket change even after the train has left the station for CRH trains or, in certain circumstances, for non-CRH trains. If you see the remark “开车后改签不予退票”, that means this ticket has been changed after the train you were supposed to take has left. In this case, refunds will not be accepted.
E2: Identification Details (身份证件)
If you are taking a C, D or G train (and with effect as of 01 January 2012 for all trains), this part is the bit you might want to keep secret, as it contains the number of your document of identity and, in some cases, your name (in Chinese or English). Uploading photos of your ticket with this bit uncensored will almost certainly result in identity theft — you’ve been warned!
F1: QR Code (二维码)
Also sensitive territory: your identification details are encrypted here. But hey, even if you’ve an extra dot here (the extra “F1″ circle is more than enough), you’ve just mutilated the QR code. Isn’t technology great?
F2: CRH Remark (和谐号备注)
Your ticket will only show something here (most commonly 和谐号: Harmony Express) if you are taking HSR. If that’s so, consider yourself welcomed to the fastest things on the Chinese rails. If you’re the holder of a ticket with these three characters, you are about to travel on China’s state-of-the-art high speed trains — part of the world’s longest HSR network.
Other remarks on previous train tickets:
当日使用一次有效 席位当次有效: Valid for one use on date of validity; seat valid only for this train. This means that your ticket is valid for one use any time on the date of validity (this is either the day you bought the ticket or the day the ticket goes into effect for pre-purchased tickets). You may, however, always, request a change of trains (once only) any time on that day.
当日当次车有效: Valid for train specified on date of departure. Nothing much: it just means: either take me or don’t… I’m only good for this very train!
限乘当日当次车 中途下车失效: Valid for this train only; not valid for midway exits. This means that you must ride the entire journey as printed on the ticket, and that the ticket is only good for the train as stated on the ticket. If you exit at a midway station along the way, that will render your ticket invalid. (On and before 30 November 2010, you had the option to stop midway on your trip if you were riding “ordinary” trains (as in non-CRH, non-Beijing Suburban Railway Line 2 trains or if you were seated instead of being in sleepers). This became null and void on and after 1 December 2010.)
限乘当日当次车 在2日内到有效: Valid for this train only; must arrive at destination within 2 days. This throws some people off: they argue that they should be OK getting on the train. In actual fact, the two days are counted already from the date on the ticket. This means that if your ticket is dated 30 August, you must arrive at your destination on or before 31 August. Departing on 31 August will be risky, if not possible. There is such a stipulation as some Chinese trains (slow, non-CRH ones) will take forever to complete a journey: two-day trains to Hainan Island (and even three or four-day trains for points further afield) are not unheard-of. Confusing? That’s why they got rid of this rule in December 2010.
限当日使用一次有效: Valid for one trip on date of validity only. This variant is seen on some railways, notably the Guangzhou-Shenzhen CRH regional express, and means simply that you’re granted one ride with that ticket on the stretch you’re covering. However, if there’s an assigned seat number, that will probably only be valid for the train printed on the ticket.