It was painful, but now that I've taken the plunge, it should be easy for you guys.


-I tried to book on the English site first
-Site stalled just before the credit card screen, but I wasn't planning on completing that transaction anyway because were trying to tack on a y40/ticket "delivery charge"
-So, I jumped on the phone and asked them to book manually for me AND remove that stupid charge because I'd either grab the ticket at the train station or send my own courier to their office to pick it up
-The rep told me that it is only possible to book train tickets on line at this time, and that I should use the Chinese site if I didn't want to pay the extra y40
-As such, I repeated step 1 on the Chinese site; instead of a delivery fee, there was a y20 "road injury insurance" fee
-I got back on the phone, and the lady who picked up told me to press the back button on my browser, click on the tab the right of VIP, and I would have the opportunity to remove it... sure enough, she was right
-I used my US issued MC to pay for the ticket (exactly face value), which was shockingly easy... no need to even enter my billing address, much less do the front/back scan drill

This is even cheaper than buying tickets over the official website because they don't hit you with the y5 convenience fee... trivial, I know, just sayin'.