Aforementioned sites tieyou.com and huoche.com sell usually for a 0 to 25 CNY surchange depending on their promos, including mailing the ticket to you by shunfeng etc. You'll eventually need online banking (which I presume everyone living here has) or Alipay.

Ctrip continues to have ridiculously great customer service; their chauffeur driven cars are the newest excellent service, making the hassle with tongcheng no longer necessary. I would still not purchase train tickets with them, though.