12306 online ticketing platform makes travel easy
When buying High Speed Rail tickets, the first choice is of course to use the China Railway 12306 online ticketing platform. This platform has both a mobile app and a website, and provides a one-stop "purchase, alter and refund" service. What's more, you can conveniently open an account^ just with a Hong Kong mobile phone number. 12306 accepts payment with international credit cards (e.g Visa and Mastercard), UnionPay and other designated payment methods in the Mainland.
Each passenger is required to provide a mobile phone number with SMS service (only accept Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan mobile phone numbers) upon ticket purchase through 12306 online ticketing platform, Mainland stations or designated Mainland ticket agents. For passengers who may be unable to register and buy tickets on 12306 online ticketing platform with their mobile number due to network or service plan issues, please contact the telecommunications operator. Alternatively, you may consider buying round trip tickets through Hong Kong ticketing channels.
[Four Benefits of 12306.cn]
One-stop Ticketing: Both Cross Boundary High Speed Rail tickets and Mainland Domestic Tickets are available
Buy Standby Tickets: Waitlist for a specified train that has already sold out
Convenient After-sales Services: Ticket alteration and refund can be processed online
Earn Points for Free Tickets: Join China Railway loyalty programme to earn points for redemption of free ticket. The programme is only available on 12306 Chinese platform
Learn More on Earning Points for Free Tickets
- China Railway loyalty programme members can earn five (5) points for every RMB1 fare of spending on designated trains (including cross boundary and domestic section). Starting from 1 April 2025, elderly members aged 60 or above can enjoy more points than an ordinary member with fifteen (15) points for every RMB 1 fare spent
- 100 points are counted as RMB1
- Example: For an ordinary member, seven rides between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Guangzhounan Station (adult 2nd class fare: RMB215) are entitled to 7,525 points (RMB215 X 5 times X 7 rides). It is equivalent to more than RMB75 which can be used to redeem an adult 2nd class ticket between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Shenzhenbei Station (worth RMB75). In case of an elderly member, only taking 3 rides will earn sufficient points (RMB215 x 15 x 3 rides = 9,675 points) to redeem a free Shenzhenbei ticket worth 7,500 points
Earn points
Redeem tickets
| 12306 China Railway Website | Download China Railway 12306 Mobile App | |
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Friendly reminder:
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 iOS |
 Android |
Service hours: 05:00-01:00 (next day) for ticket purchase and alteration (05:00-24:00 on Tuesdays); 24 hours daily for ticket refund
^12306 English platform only accepts account registration with email for foreign passport holders. Registered users can add their mobile phone number (only accept Mainland mobile phone number) in their account for verification before ticket purchase
[Useful information]
Tutorials:
Click to know more about 12306 account registration
Click to know more about ticket purchase on 12306
Click to know more about ticket alteration and refund on 12306
Click to know more about China Railway loyalty programme
Others:
Click for the frequently asked questions
Note: 12306 online ticketing service is provided by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. Please check the details of conditions of use from https://www.12306.cn