5 day limit on buying tickets at the railway station

Hi, i usally book rail tickets online and just go to the railway station earlier to pick them up at the departure day. It is quite easy.

I disagree. I find it is a lot easier (and much cheaper) to buy tickets directly. Fror example a short trip might cost 54 Yuan but the booking fee adds 60 yuan plus the extra paid to paypal. So the price paid is more than double the cost of the ticket. also after booking tickets online I can no longer pick them up at an agent. Now they have to be picked up at the rail station. But it isn't clear where to go to do this. If I line up in the normal ticket lines I get sent from one line to another - it usually takes lining up about three times before I get the booke dtickets. Whereas I can buy them from any line.

Also you didn't answer my question. Why is there a 5 day limit and why can't I find any information on it? Is it temporary? Does it only apply to foreigners?

The system is really a mess for foreigners who don't speak Mandarin.

Dear Ozvince, Our clients choosing us making the bookings for them as we offer 24 hours service and our professional booking agents keep eyes on the tickets and issue them when the tickets are released (10-20 days) no matter how long they make the bookings beforehand. And also because we lead clients step by step, once we issued the tickets, we can mail them to our clients or we offer ticket collecting instruction in both English and Chinese when they choose picking tickets up at the railway station. From the very beginning inquiry to the end of the rail journey, we communicate with clients in English and help their travel smoothly and hassle-free.

The fact is that in practice it is not smooth and hassle free. Picking up the tickets booked online is a huge hassle. For example in Shanghai I lined up for 40 minutes and when I eventually got to the head of the queue the operator told me I had to go to a particular booth on the other side of the railway station. After walking through the whole station and finding the other ticketing area I lined up at the booth I was told to but when I got to the front I was then directed to another line. After lining up for another 20 minutes I eventually got my tickets. It would have been much easier to just buy them at the first booth.....but of course if you need to be somewhere it is a huge risk to wait until 4 days before you travel to get your tickets. Hence my immense frustration at this 'rule' that nobody seems to have even heard of.

Still no answer. Why a 5 day limit on purchases in person and does it only apply to foreigners?

Hi, Actually in some of railway stations in China, the windows of purchasing tickets and windows of collecting tickets are separated, like in Shanghai. There might be a chinese word 取票(qupiao) in the windows of collecting tickets. But in most of railway stations, you can collect tickets at any ticket windows. If you do not bother to pick it up by yourself, you can use the ticket delivery service.

For the 5 days limitation, it is temporary. In some special time period like Spring Festival, some route will have this temporary restrictions.

Thanks for your attention.

I know the 5 day limit is on now and has been for the past two weeks. It has also been for every destination I have tried including mid week travel between Hefei and Nanjing, Shanghai and Hefei etc etc ....It doesn't seem to be related to how busy it is or what time of year it is. It seems like nobody knows about it, the railway staff don't even understand why the computer wont let them sell the tickets. It seems to be only for foreigners.