buy train tickets online

[ss2000]

has anyone bought train ticket, say, from guangzhou to HK, online while outside of china and without a china local mobile number? I tried to book train tickets while I'm still in Singapore before my China trip with a few Chinese apps but unsuccessful because they ask for a China local mobile number while registering your passport details.

there is one app that did work: China Train Booking on iOS store, using my Singapore mobile number. however, it looks dodgy and from what I can see, you book and pay through the app, then they will book the tickets on your behalf with the details you provided in the app, and then will email you the tickets. it's likely they will use their own Chinese account with a China mobile number to place the bookings for you.

 

[dilphinus]

has anyone bought train ticket, say, from guangzhou to HK, online while outside of china and without a china local mobile number? I tried to book train tickets while I'm still in Singapore before my China trip with a few Chinese apps but unsuccessful because they ask for a China local mobile number while registering your passport details.

there is one app that did work: China Train Booking on iOS store, using my Singapore mobile number. however, it looks dodgy and from what I can see, you book and pay through the app, then they will book the tickets on your behalf with the details you provided in the app, and then will email you the tickets. it's likely they will use their own Chinese account with a China mobile number to place the bookings for you.

There is a thread on this,

https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/china-high-speed-rail.6970277/

 

[natas]

has anyone bought train ticket, say, from guangzhou to HK, online while outside of china and without a china local mobile number? I tried to book train tickets while I'm still in Singapore before my China trip with a few Chinese apps but unsuccessful because they ask for a China local mobile number while registering your passport details.

there is one app that did work: China Train Booking on iOS store, using my Singapore mobile number. however, it looks dodgy and from what I can see, you book and pay through the app, then they will book the tickets on your behalf with the details you provided in the app, and then will email you the tickets. it's likely they will use their own Chinese account with a China mobile number to place the bookings for you.

trip.com

 

[bump&bump]

there is one app that did work: China Train Booking on iOS store, using my Singapore mobile number. however, it looks dodgy and from what I can see, you book and pay through the app, then they will book the tickets on your behalf with the details you provided in the app, and then will email you the tickets. it's likely they will use their own Chinese account with a China mobile number to place the bookings for you.

You have said it already : "it looks dodgy"

Your gut feelings are correct most of the time. Why risk your personal information by willingly give them to some anon people online ? That's is why scam syndicates with massive worldwide databases are flourishing everywhere in the world.

Why do intelligent people easily fall into such traps ? It may be working by delivering what it promises, but it could also be a part of data harvesting farms for criminal syndicates.

 

[boringLife-]

The official china railway booking app is Railway 12306. That is legit

 

[ss2000]

The official china railway booking app is Railway 12306. That is legit

Yup I know. I have the 12306 app too but to register an account, you need a China mobile number. I don't have it at the moment.

Trip.com can book but charges 15CNY per ticket as service charge, which is ok.

 

[maggoth]

Yup I know. I have the 12306 app too but to register an account, you need a China mobile number. I don't have it at the moment.

Trip.com can book but charges 15CNY per ticket as service charge, which is ok.

Try switching the language interface of the 12306 railway app to English then you will be able to verify the account using email instead of sms.

I was able to reactivate my account in that way as they signed me out after I came back from China last Nov.

I prefer to use 12306 cos can choose seats and also less the booking fee which trip.com charges, which I feel is abit much.

One additional detail, 12306 will require you to pay by WeChat or Alipay and if you’re transacting this outside of China, there will be a 3% levy on the payment. It’s negligible but just thought to let you know.

 

[jie1313]

I always wonder how did u guys manage to book the tixs through 12306 app. I have tried a few weeks back and managed to set up an account with my passport detail and SG phone number. However, it requires me to validate my ID before allowing purchase to proceed, meaning have to login to the website and not the app and let them validate my passport with my face.

Tried a few times and it hangs and always doesn't go through the validation. In the end, i gave up. And i use Etrip China to help me purchase.

 

[natas]

I always wonder how did u guys manage to book the tixs through 12306 app. I have tried a few weeks back and managed to set up an account with my passport detail and SG phone number. However, it requires me to validate my ID before allowing purchase to proceed, meaning have to login to the website and not the app and let them validate my passport with my face.

Tried a few times and it hangs and always doesn't go through the validation. In the end, i gave up. And i use Etrip China to help me purchase.

The reason why I used Trip during my last trip in China.

 

[maggoth]

I always wonder how did u guys manage to book the tixs through 12306 app. I have tried a few weeks back and managed to set up an account with my passport detail and SG phone number. However, it requires me to validate my ID before allowing purchase to proceed, meaning have to login to the website and not the app and let them validate my passport with my face.

Tried a few times and it hangs and always doesn't go through the validation. In the end, i gave up. And i use Etrip China to help me purchase.

That’s weird. I actually registered when I was in China without the need for ID validation. They allowed me 4 or 5 bookings before they prompted me to validate my ID so I have to scan my passport and face before I can make any more bookings. I was already at the tail end of my trip so I didn’t do the ID verification until I came back to SG. I managed to do it through the app when I came back. That was around Dec last year.

Around March this year I opened the 12306 app again and realised they logged me out and needed to do sms verification before I can log back in. I switched to Eng and was able to do the verification by email and now able to use the app.

 

[jie1313]

That’s weird. I actually registered when I was in China without the need for ID validation. They allowed me 4 or 5 bookings before they prompted me to validate my ID so I have to scan my passport and face before I can make any more bookings. I was already at the tail end of my trip so I didn’t do the ID verification until I came back to SG. I managed to do it through the app when I came back. That was around Dec last year.

Around March this year I opened the 12306 app again and realised they logged me out and needed to do sms verification before I can log back in. I switched to Eng and was able to do the verification by email and now able to use the app.

U mentioned that u registered when u were in China. Let me make a guess. U registered with a China number? If so, maybe that could be a reason why u were able to book thereafter.

Honestly, I tried and follow every steps carefully using my SG number. But it just cannot validate me even when I show my face holding my passport at multiple views. That stage kept hanging.

 

[Hungry kid]

I personally feel that the official train booking site or China websites can be quite unstable or because they are more high tech, maybe need more security ba. My personal experience was i register online at the 12306 website using the Chinese language page, keyed in passport details and it verified almost instantly after uploading a pic of the passport. My partner however, besides uploading the passport pic, she also needs to take a pic of herself with the passport for additional verification.

Once that's all approve, managed to purchased train ticket on the website for both pax. Yesterday tried using the app and was also successful. Both times i did not use the English page, find the Chinese page better chance of purchasing successfully. I did not provide any phone number and still allow to purchase. Managed to see the tickets in the "paid ticket" page and also received email on the order number, payment, seats no. etc.

Payment wise, able to use local issue CC, visa and Mastercard. Hope this helps!

 

[maggoth]

U mentioned that u registered when u were in China. Let me make a guess. U registered with a China number? If so, maybe that could be a reason why u were able to book thereafter.

Honestly, I tried and follow every steps carefully using my SG number. But it just cannot validate me even when I show my face holding my passport at multiple views. That stage kept hanging.

No I don’t have a china number. I also didn’t register with my SG number. It’s either with my email or I used WeChat or Alipay to link up with the app.

 

[ss2000]

No I don’t have a china number. I also didn’t register with my SG number. It’s either with my email or I used WeChat or Alipay to link up with the app.

It doesn’t work for me. When I open the 12306 app in English and click the Register button, the app hangs.

I get a bit further with 12306 through Alipay as I mentioned in my earlier post. But it asks for a China mobile number and must verify the number.

Not sure how you managed to do it.

 

[froztheart]

That’s weird. I actually registered when I was in China without the need for ID validation. They allowed me 4 or 5 bookings before they prompted me to validate my ID so I have to scan my passport and face before I can make any more bookings. I was already at the tail end of my trip so I didn’t do the ID verification until I came back to SG. I managed to do it through the app when I came back. That was around Dec last year.

Around March this year I opened the 12306 app again and realised they logged me out and needed to do sms verification before I can log back in. I switched to Eng and was able to do the verification by email and now able to use the app.

No I don’t have a china number. I also didn’t register with my SG number. It’s either with my email or I used WeChat or Alipay to link up with the app.

Same experience, only required verficiation after a few trips in, which I got it verified during my trip in China last year to resolve it for good.
And registered using SG number and email IIRC.

 

[charlieangel123]

ctrip.com no need chinese phone number