Originally Posted by
moondog
While it's true that you can't really "reserve" train tickets, I think this problem is often overstated here. To put it differently, the system works pretty well.
I have never failed to get a train I wanted. That said, I don't like having to wait until the last minute, find somebody to buy me tickets, and hope it goes OK. And, sometimes, the folks I hire screw it up a bit. Like last time, my family of 4 wound up in two different sleeping compartments (we managed to move some grumbling pax).
I just like having control of the situation and not having to rely on others. I guess I'm used to that when I travel.
And I can pretty much do that for internal Chinese air travel.