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Booking China high speed rail tickets

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  1. #1

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    Booking China high speed rail tickets

    What's the best/easiest way of booking rail tickets? Looking to book HK to Guilin in June. Need the best website to go through.

    Or do it at the railway station?


  2. #2

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    I always book my railway ticket/highspeed ticket through www.ctrip.com
    Foreigner needs to arrive earlier to retrieve ticket manually at the station, the q is short generally cause most chinese local use machine/apps. U can also reschedule the ticket with no additional fee for 1 time.

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  3. #3

    Pay in HKD, goto MTR website or the West Kowloon Station.Pay in RMB, numerous booking websites, but maybe with additional fees.

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  4. #4

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    Tickets go on sale 30 days prior to departure date. You can either buy at station, or purchase on mtr website then pickup at counters the day of departure.

    There are other ways to buy like others said but I suggest to keep it simple and buy at station earlier.

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  5. #5

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    For HK departures, surely always book through MTR or the MTR ticket machines / counters at West Kowloon?

    Book on Ctrip or 12306 and you end up having to queue at the far end of the station along with all the other mainlanders who booked from the Mainland ticket quota.

    Or am I missing something here?

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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by tparker:
    For HK departures, surely always book through MTR or the MTR ticket machines / counters at West Kowloon?

    Book on Ctrip or 12306 and you end up having to queue at the far end of the station along with all the other mainlanders who booked from the Mainland ticket quota.

    Or am I missing something here?

    Ticket machines only available to Hongkong Citizens ( holding Home return Permit), passport holders cannot use. Only option is the counters.

    If TO are passport holders; China immigration maybe very busy and they don't care if you're missing your train. I suggest prior ticket purchase and arrival at the station 75 mins before departure at least.

    Myself, i take the train almost daily to Shenzhen; but I have e-channel access at China side ; so arriving 25 mins before departure is enough for me.
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  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fei88:
    Myself, i take the train almost daily to Shenzhen; but I have e-channel access at China side
    ... but how do you buy your tickets?
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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by tparker:
    ... but how do you buy your tickets?
    Either online @ MTR WEBSITE and pick up before departure ( ticket pickup counters are not busy!!), but important to note MTR online sales shut down between 11 PM - 6 am everyday!! ( Yeah, they're still in dark ages)

    Or i buy tickets at counters the day before.

    Coming back from China, I normally just buy in Shenzhen.

    Also you are allowed to change day/time of departure once only, after ticket is issued.
    Pauljoecoe likes this.

  9. #9

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    Thanks for your replies everyone. Just need to decide where to go now!


  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauljoecoe:
    Thanks for your replies everyone. Just need to decide where to go now!
    Have you been to Shaoguan? Takes less than 2 hours to get there.

    There's Nanling National Forest park, Guangdong's last remaining virgin forests, and Mount Danxia.

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