In most common circulation these days are the pink paper ticket and the blue magnetic card ticket.
Chinese train tickets will appear to be the two variants as mentioned below, but there will be the odd exceptions. Here’s a look at them all.
Note: Always keep your train ticket with you, as you will need it for the whole trip right up to the exit gates at the final destination. (On sleepers onboard trains without a letter prefix, or on K and T train sleepers, you will need to hand in your ticket to train staff for a Sleeper Card and might, at times, have your photo ID and personal information registered by railway police. Keep the card so that you can return this for your ticket. Your ticket is usually returned to you about a station ahead, or one hour ahead.)
THE PINK PAPER TICKET (粉色普通票)
The most oft-seen train ticket in China. Available everywhere outside high speed rail hubs or the main stations in big cities. If you got your ticket at a ticket sales agent, you probably ended up with this ticket. A variant with an RFID chip is available for riders on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen CRH accelerated railway line (but only if the train leaves from Guangzhou East (not Guangzhou South) to the main Shenzhen Railway Station (by the Luohu / Lo Wu Border Crossing), not Shenzhen North).
These tickets will not go through an automated ticket gate at high speed railway stations. If you have a pink ticket good for HSR travel (which is perfectly normal), use the manned ticket check queues instead (which are usually just next to the automated ticket gates).
THE PINK ROLL TICKET (粉色卷票)
Seen only by those who ask for a ticket on the train: This ticket will often carry a surcharge for on-board purpose and is basically the same as the pink paper ticket. If you are upgrading on trains that will also be the ticket you will get. Note that they use a previous standard and the bit below about decoding 21-digit ticket numbers will not apply to these tickets!
THE BLUE MAGNETIC TICKET (蓝色磁质票)
A 2007/2008 debut, the blue magnetic ticket is the long-awaited upgrade to the conventional paper ticket in pink. It is only the only ticket that you can insert into a ticket gate at HSR stations (or regular rail stations where HSR services are available).
The ticket shows a CRH2 bullet train in the background (limited-edition tickets made available during the Shanghai 2010 World Expo showed the HSR pavilion instead), and is stiffer than the regular pink paper ticket variant. (In 2007 and 2008, some of these tickets sold around Shanghai appeared pink, not blue.)
In some stations with high traffic, station staff will also allow riders to have their blue tickets checked by hand instead of by machine.
THE E-TICKET (电子客票) (Holders of a 2nd-generation PRC ID card only)
How odd it must be to be a PRC citizen. You need a visa and a passport for Europe and the US, but you are granted the privilege of boarding your train using solely your — ID card!
With effect from late 2011, all HSR stations across China will support the complete use of 2nd-generation PRC ID cards as replacement for an ordinary ticket provided you did not obtain the original paper ticket!
Note: If you need to reimburse your travel expenses and are a holder of a 2nd generation PRC ID card, obtain a paper ticket at the station of travel and use that (and not your ID card) at the ticket gates! Your ID card, alas, is not sufficient proof you’ve travelled by train!
THE REPLACEMENT TICKET (代用票)
These are seen increasingly less and less and have been replaced in some parts of China by the pink roll ticket.
THE SLEEPER CARD (卧铺牌)
Don’t take this off the train! Keep onto your own sleeper card, which will be given to you shortly after the train leaves your first station.
Hand in your regular ticket to train staff to exchange this for a Sleeper Card. Just before the end of the journey, your Sleeper Card will be asked for so that train crew will give you your regular ticket back. This often happens about a station ahead of your exit station, or about an hour before you pull in at your destination (or transfer station).
Sleeper cards will be given to riders in Soft and Hard Sleeper (and probably Deluxe Soft Sleeper as well) on all sleeper trains on trains without a letter prefix, as well as on sleepers on K and T trains. They will not be given, and are not required, for passengers travelling on sleepers on D or Z trains.
At times, you will be required to show photo ID and have your personal data registered. The legality of this will be dubious unless carried out by a police officer (rail police or standard police). If you appear “non-Chinese” / “foreign”, the police might not bother — their English isn’t that good and they don’t like international incidents! During “sensitive periods” (for example during important political conferences in China), though, it’s probably a smarter idea to comply.
THE PLATFORM TICKET (站台票)
This used to be the secret ticket in the Chinese railway world. Alas, it is finding itself less and less use these days…
In a previous era, the platform ticket granted you unlimited access to the station platforms for just CNY 1.00 (or CNY 1.50 around Guangdong). It was designed for those who wanted to see off their friends and/or relatives, and although it, strictly speaking, did not allow you to board the train, you could do precisely that — and then declare within 20 minutes of departure your travelling intentions and buy your ticket on the train.
According to the rail rule books, platform tickets are no longer offered to CRH train passengers or those holding tickets bought against personal ID. Those travelling on the Beijing Suburban Railway Line S2 will also be denied a platform ticket. As for those who venture onto the platforms without one, you’ll have to pay the price of two platform tickets. Thankfully, kids (with adults) and those with special permission are exempt from the platform ticket requirement.
Access to the elusive platform ticket is now increasingly limited. You have to either produce a ticket of a train departing soon, or have to know the number of a train that is about to arrive at the station. Some stations have stopped offering the platform ticket altogether even if regular rail services are available. And, of course, the platform ticket is altogether gone in high speed stations.
DECRYPTING THE 21-DIGIT TICKET NUMBER
At the bottom left hand corner of every Chinese train ticket are 21 digits or letters (blue tickets may have them hyphenated every four digits). That’s your 21-digit ticket number.
Apart from looking like a bunch of numerical gibberish, these figures actually do make some sense. Here’s an attempt at decoding them.
First 5 digits: Number of ticket sales station.
So for the red ticket (train L7228), 61976 would stand for Yuquan Railway Station; the red ticket’s 1017-2 would indicate the Tanggu Railway Station.
Next 2 digits: Ticket sales status.
In other words, how this ticket was sold to you. Here’s what it means:
- 00 – 09: Sold at railway station
- 10 – 19: Pre-reserved ticket
- 20 – 29: Sold at authorized point of sales outside of station
- 30 – 39: Sold from automated Ticket Vending Machine
- 40 – 49: (Not in use)
- 90 – 98: Sold in Management Mode
- 99: Sold in Technical Maintenance Mode
Most of us will not see status figures 40-49 and 90-99, and it’s also difficult for us to hit figures 10-19.
Next 3 digits: Number of ticket sales window.
Important: This may or may not equate with the exact number of the ticket window where you got your ticket from. In general, you’ll see a three-figure number in the series from 001 to 255. Here’s how to decode it:
- 001 – 200: Regular ticket window (including returns and reservations)
- 201 – 255: Management window
If the 6th and 7th digits of your ticket are between 20 and 29, the three figures here, though, will show you the code of the authorized point of sales outside of the railway station.
Next 4 digits: Approximate date of purchase.
We say approximate because there might be a delay of about a day as the railways often do their maths at a certain time during a day. As a result, you might end up with a ticket you bought on 29 December (1229) which bears the code that it was sold on 30 December (1230). Not to worry! (The four digits come in the form of MMDD.)
Final 7 digits: Ticket number.
To instantly spot a fake, check if this number (ignore the hyphens) matches with the same seven figures (in red) at the top left hand corner of the ticket! Note that the English capital letters I and O are not used.
Two hints here:
- Some railway bureaus might have more than 7 digits printed on the top left hand corner of the ticket. In that case, that bit of string data includes the number of the ticket sales window before the ticket number. For example, tickets sold around Shanghai will include those extra numbers.
- Valid ticket numbers are anything from A000001 to Z100000. If you encounter out-of-range ticket numbers such as Z984571, be very suspicious as your ticket might be a fake!