I've used elong a bunch, but always while with a Chinese SIM card. Trying to book them while abroad was thus not possible.

So, I tried using Ctrip for the first time. The mobile site is horrendous (there was quite a delay between typing in the city/airport code and then having it appear. Much of the time it didn't register anything. Once I finally got through, I couldn't book it anyway.

Elong it has been, elong it will be.