Thanks for posting the video. If I ever take a train from Shanghai South, I now know that exit 4 is the way to go.^ This video actually refers to another video about the "getting your tickets outside the station" strategy. I suppose I could find this video via Google search, but I'm pretty sure I understand the drill.

There are ticket offices/kiosks on the premises, but not "inside" most train stations that can perform the same functions, presumably including issuing third party tickets(?), as the more chaotic normal ticket counters.

This approach is a bit of a gamble IMO, which is station/time-of-day dependent.

Basically, some train stations have dedicated lines (inside) for will call, and these tend to move very fast because generally only people who can't use the automated ticket machines bother to use them, and most individual transactions take less than 1 minute (the exception is when a tour guide shows up with 50 passports, which DOES happen).

However, other stations (e.g. Shenzhen North) combine will call with the ticket changes/refunds....much larger audience + much longer average transaction times.

Personally, I will continue to avoid online ticketing until the passport accepting ticket machines are more widespread (and we get reports from the field on which stations have them, and if they actually work!), but for those of you who must buy online due to time constraints, I suggest you give you arrive at the train stations with plenty of time to spare in order to obtain your physical tickets (this is a shame because of one of the main advantages of train v. plane is that if you have a ticket in hand, showing up at t-15 minutes is generally sufficient).