How to use 12306.cn to get a train ticket in China

How to use 12306.cn to get a train ticket in China

A foreigner who want to get a Railway ticket in China, must hold her/ his passport and create a account on 12306.cn or ask friend to buy ticket from 12306.cn for her/him.

12306.cn is a official website of Railway System in China. right, there is solely a company in China who are running  all railway lines in China. It was Railway Dept. (China) and now is a company --  under the control of   Railway Bureau China.

1. Registration on 12306.cn

(want assistance to get a ticket in China, please mail to me stanzh91@gmail.com)
open this link: 12306 registration 
 if you have no a phone number you can ask assistance from a Chinese and follow his directions to get a account.

2. For the first time you buy a ticket, you MAYBE  require to go a railway station to enter your passport information to 12306.cn by staff of this company.

ticket lobby and booking clerk

Go to ticket lobby and tell booking clerk  behind glasses. you want to create a account on 12306.cn, " please make my passport ID available on that website." (It like you create a google account by a mail  and you need clik that confirmation link on your mailbox)
By the way, you also could buy a ticket from this clerk.

3.how to buy a ticket for a specific travel

open this link: booking ticket.
https://kyfw.12306.cn/otn/leftTicket/init



1. choose Train No. -- buy railway ticket in China on 12306cn

2. Choose Train No. --buy railway ticket on 12306.cn in China

Major cities in China:
ShenZhen     - SZ - 深圳       GuangZhou   -GZ -  广州        ChangSha  -  CS   -长沙
WuHan- WH-武汉                ChongQing -CQ-重庆             ZhengZhou -ZZ-郑州
TaiYuan -TY-太原                ShiJiaZhuang- SJZ-石家庄     BeiJing -BJ-北京
TianJin -TJ-天津                   ShenYang- SY-沈阳                HaiErBin -HEB-哈尔滨
DaLian-DL-大连                   ChangChun-CC-长春              QingDao-QD-青岛
NanJing-NJ-南京                   WuXi-WX-无锡                      SuZhou- SZ-苏州
ShangHai -SH-上海               HangZhou- HZ-杭州               WenZhou -WZ-温州
NingBo- NB-宁波                  XiaMen- XM-厦门                 XiAn-XA-西安
Lanzhou- LZ-兰州                 XiNing-XN-西宁                    WuLuMuQi-WLMQ-乌鲁木齐
YinChuang-YC-银川             LaSa- LS-拉萨                        ChengDu- CD-成都
GuiYang- GY-贵阳                NanNing-NN-南宁                 KunMing-KM-昆明
(want assistance to get a ticket in China, please mail to me stanzh91@gmail.com) 



3. Login page on 12306.cn




4. confirm your ticket on 12306.cn

5. Double check your ticket



pay your ticket

choose a payment method

pay railway ticket by Alipay

4. A big trouble is Verification.
 the 12306 provide a verification question by a picture with a Chinese Text. Usually question is referring to one or two things, and you must click the right thing from below 8 photoes!
For Example, on above "login page on 12306":
Question is "请点击下图中所有的箱子", ----Please click all box from below. So we have to choose the third one and sixth one to complete Verification.


5. the second trouble is how to pay by your computer or your phone
my solution is create a Taobao (Alipay) account by mail and tell your Chinese friend tranfer money to this account.
You can pay the ticket by money in your Alipay.
(refer to get a Alipay account )

6. Get ticket  when before you departing from ticket lobby.

(want assistance to get a ticket in China, please mail to me stanzh91@gmail.com)

7.you also could download 12306 APP on your phone
open 12306 APP page
choose Andriod or  Iphone to download.

8. book a ticket by Wechat

(refer to get a ticket by wechat )