Arriving passengers exit the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 12, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
Verification made easier
The only website in the country allowed to sell train tickets, 12306.cn received numerous complaints about the verification code test that users must pass to buy tickets online last year.
To make costumer experience better, new steps have been taken to make 60 percent of the tickets bought online free of the verification procedure.
Website adds functions
New edition of 12306.cn incorporates four new services: checking if the trains are on schedule, start of tickets pre-sale period in all railway stations across the country, taxi hailing and other customer services.
Other services include VIP passenger reservation service, "Lost and Found", complaints on service quality and online purchase problems and directory of customer service call numbers.
Hints for tickets booking
1. Tickets can be bought 30 days before the date of departure if travelling after Dec 30, 2016.
2. Time to book tickets online and on app every day is from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm.
3. Each passenger can only buy a maximum of 5 tickets to curb scalping.
4. Tickets booked through telephone should be collected within 12 hours.
5. Tickets due for Jan 25, 2017, or three days before Spring Festival, are predicted to be the most difficult ones to buy. The second hardest will be Jan 21, 2017. So the two pre-sale dates Dec 23 and Dec 27 will cause biggest headaches.
6. Daily start time to sell tickets varies at different railway stations, which can be found on 12306.cn.
About three billion trips are expected to be made during the Spring Festival travel rush in 2017, and 356 million are expected to travel by rail, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Good luck and bon voyage, if you are one of the 356 million.
