Originally Posted by
JPDM
I don't think that this strategy works now.
The best strategy now is to buy with a departure from a previous station where there is availability (or a later station). This is a very common trick for the Pingyao-Xi'An overnight trains.
I once took a train in Jiayuguan but waited too much before buying my tickets. So I had to buy a ticket from Lanzhou. The departure in Lanzhou was at 5pm but I got on the train at 3am in Jiayuguan. Our soft sleeper compartment was locked and waiting for us.
The only hesitation was due to the fact that the date on our tickets was the day before when the train actually departed Lanzhou but that was cleared up quickly as the conductor figured out that it was the same train, just that it left the station 9 hours earlier.
Jiayuguan just so happens to be a place in which I availed of the aforementioned strategy; I was going from Jiayuguan to Lanzhou.
At the time, it was simply not possible to get Wulumuqi origin tickets printed in Jiayuguan, but it doesn't surprise me that things have changed with the advent of consumer facing semi-electronic ticketing.
However, given the fact that train tickets are priced based on distance, and Jiayuguan is roughly halfway between Wulumuqi and Lanzhou, I'd be reticent to pay double in order to lock in a sleeper if I could be reasonably certain that sleepers would be available at the station stop.