China Step by StepPractical intelligence

12306 for foreign travellers

12306 is China Railway’s only official ticketing platform, and it has an English website and app that sell to foreign passport holders directly. Getting into it is a three-part problem: registering an account, passing passport verification, and paying. None of the three is difficult, but verification takes working days rather than minutes, the English platform keeps opening hours, and one rule that European travellers are not expecting — one ticket per document per train per day — quietly removes the usual trick of booking a spare.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

Passport verification is described by the Beijing Foreign Affairs Office as normally completing three to five working days after submission. A traveller who registers on the day of arrival has no way to buy a ticket online for that day or the next, and the alternative is a queue at a station ticket window with the original passport, because the station self-service machines do not serve passport holders. Register and verify one to two weeks before departure.

How

  1. Do before arrivalRegister on the 12306 English website or app choosing Passport as the document type. Contact details may be an email address or a phone number, but the accepted phone numbers are those registered in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan — so register with email, which avoids the restriction entirely.1
  2. Do before arrivalEnter your name exactly as it appears in the machine-readable zone of your passport: surname and given-name order, spacing and hyphens all have to match, because a mismatch is recorded as a failed verification.2
  3. Do before arrivalComplete identity verification. Official guidance gives two routes: fill in name, nationality and document number on the English website or app for automatic checking, optionally submitting a photograph of the passport data page for manual review; or take the original passport to a railway station ticket window. An account showing "pending verification" needs the original passport at a station window, and only becomes able to buy tickets once it shows as passed.2
  4. Do before arrivalAllow three to five working days for the check to complete after you submit, which is why this belongs one to two weeks before departure and not in the departure week.1
  5. Do before arrivalBook inside the platform’s operating hours. Ticket sales and endorsement on the English platform run from 05:00 to 01:00 the following day, and from 05:00 to 23:30 on Tuesdays; outside those hours only queries and refunds work. From a European time zone this closes part of your working day, so check the clock in China before sitting down to book.3
  6. Do before arrivalPay online. Official guidance states that after identity verification you can buy through the 12306 English website or app and pay with a domestic or foreign bank card or a mobile payment app; at a station ticket window, a domestic or foreign bank card, RMB cash or a mobile payment app are all accepted.4
  7. Do before arrivalBuy one ticket per traveller per train per day and no more: a valid identity document can only hold one ticket for the same train on the same travel date, the only exception being a child without their own document travelling on an accompanying adult’s identity.5
  8. Do before arrivalDo the whole booking, endorsement and refund cycle online rather than at the station. Passports are accepted on the English website, the app and the booking phone line, and at ticket windows — but at station self-service ticket machines only the foreigner permanent residence ID card is accepted, so a tourist with a passport has no machine option.6
  9. Can do in ChinaOnce ticketed, there is nothing to collect: China Railway issues e-tickets only, and the itinerary slip is a purchase information note rather than a travel document.8

What can go wrong

Your Romanian or other European mobile number is rejected during registration.

What to do instead It is outside the accepted range, which covers numbers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Register with an email address instead; this is the documented way around it and it does not require a Chinese phone number at any point.1

Verification comes back as not passed and you are already in China.

What to do instead Take the original passport to a ticket window at a railway station to have the verification done there, then buy online afterwards. Re-check that the name matches the passport machine-readable zone character for character before resubmitting.2

You wanted a second ticket on the same train as a backup for a companion who may not make it.

What to do instead One document can hold only one ticket for the same train on the same date, so the spare has to be on a different train or a different date. Plan the backup that way from the start.5

You sit down to book in the European evening and the site will not sell you anything.

What to do instead Check the hours rather than the site: sales and endorsement close at 01:00 Beijing time, reopen at 05:00, and on Tuesdays close at 23:30. Queries and refunds still work in the closed window, which is why the site looks alive but will not complete a purchase.3

Your card is declined at the payment step.

What to do instead Official guidance says domestic and foreign bank cards are accepted but does not publish which card networks are supported or how 3-D Secure is handled, and an issuer’s cross-border controls can refuse the transaction outright. Link the card to Alipay or WeChat Pay and choose mobile payment, or buy at a station window with cash.4

You lose your passport before boarding a train you have already paid for.

What to do instead A replacement has to come from the issuing authority, which for a foreign traveller means an embassy or consulate and rarely one in the same city — so that day’s rail plan is effectively over. If the document is lost after boarding or after exiting, buy a replacement ticket, pay the service fee, obtain a travel record, and apply for a refund within 30 days with the replacement document and the supporting records.7

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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