Tickets Please

Quick reminder to anyone thinking of taking a train out of town over the October holidays. Tickets for services leaving on Monday, Sep 29, the first day of the holiday, go on sale today. Expect long lines.

In the lead up to the Olympics, China’s railway authorities announced that during that sensitive Jul 20- Sep 20 period, train tickets could only be purchased 5 days in advance of your trip, down from 10 day advance sales. In late July, Beijing authorities further restricted advance sales to only 3 days before departure. In mid-August they finally decided that 5 day advance sales were ok after all. Tickets are now again available 10 days in advance.

If you haven't though that far ahead, you might want to take a look through the following train-travel-related links.

English-language sites
Seat 61 – China
CNVOL.com - Beijing

Chinese-language sites
Huoche.com.cn
Huochepiao.com
ipiao.com
Piaojia
Kuxun – train tickets
Google Shenghuo – train and long distance bus tickets

Links and Sources
People's Daily: image