Originally Posted by
GinFizz
Yes, this is correct. If you still need a printed ticket receipt this can collected from a machine or a ticket counter. It was the case though (at least when the new system started) that for the first trip using a given passport number it was necessary to go to a ticket counter to get the number activated/validated in their system. After that just showing scanning a passport at the gates should work.
I don't know if buying through Ctrip gets around this, but better to leave some extra time just in case if you go down this route. If you buy the train ticket through an agent with a "12306" terminal (the central trainticket booking system) this also takes care of the validation.
The only limitation of an unverified account is that you can't buy train tickets for Chinese ID holders. You can however buy tickets for up to five passport holder (including Chinese nationals).
So verification is only necessary if you need to buy tickets for lots of people, and in particular, Chinese nationals without passports.