PEK Rail Ticket Pickup
 

Hi Flyertalk

Has anyone recently done the order train tickets from ctrip.com and hold for pick up at a rail ticket window at the PEK rail ticket counter?

My questions
1. Is this tutorial still accurate for T3 w.r.t. the location?
http://www.chinatrainguide.com/beiji...et-agency.html

2. How long is the average wait for those of you that have done it recently.

Any other tips would be appreciated.

I'm arriving into PEK with trains several days after, just wanted to get the tickets picked up and all done with the day I land.

Thanks

Unless things have changed recently, only train station pick up is possible.

I saw an article several months ago about the latest generation ticket machines that have passport scanners, but I'm not sure which stations have them at present.

If you haven't already bought tickets, and aren't looking for high demand trains (e.g overnight to Shanghai), buying tickets at kiosks, including PEK might be the best course of action.

I really dislike train station will call. It's often fast, but I've had wait in line for more than 30 minutes several times so I always factor this possibility into the equation.

My major problem last time at Beijing main station wasn't the ticket pick up but getting back to the hotel from the station.

The subway station only has one entrance although exits are plentiful so you have to queue with huge crowds at rush hour.

And of course the cab drivers would all tell me they wouldn't drive by the meter as there was a major event in town but only pre-arranged fare. I was able to negotiate this down to almost reasonable levels but still overpriced.

In total, rather awful experience and both Beijing main station and south station are poor cousins of their Shanghai counterparts.

I guess the capital wants to show it regards it's rude and brusque Maoist soul dear and does not want to make any concessions to customer service or other capitalist degenerate weaknesses.

It's been unclear to me whether foreigners can pick up tickets bought online at the ticket kiosks (as distinct from the ticket windows at the stations). Ctrip does say it's possible, though:

"Or you can pick up your train tickets at an authorized train ticket office (火车票代售点) – each city has several located in downtown locations outside of a train station — for a CNY 5 fee."

I haven't tried it myself. In any event, there's no harm in the OP trying pick up his tickets at a kiosk. But remember that kiosks usually keep business hours, while station ticket windows are open 24/7.

(If you set up your own personal online account with 12306 to buy train tickets -- instead of dealing through ctrip or another agent -- then you need to have your ID validated in person, and I believe the kiosks don't perform this function for foreigners. I think this may be the source of some of the confusion.)

Agreed. Whenever I go to a train station, especially in Beijing, the only way I'm leaving is by train (unless I'm arriving by train).:D

I think many visitors don't appreciate how easy the kiosk drill is in comparison to will call. Sure, booking well in advance makes sense on trains that sell out quickly, but I've never had problems buying tickets on the jinghu line the day prior (even the single digit trains typically have good availability).

That having been said if 889's hypothesis that picking up Ctrip tickets at kiosks turns out to be true, this is a best of both worlds (advance booking plus convenient) strategy.

No, you can't pick up train tickets at the airport at T3. I checked before. You need to go to the train station.
In this video they show a shortcut to get tickets, no requiring to go inside. No sure if it is still valid considering how quickly things change in China:

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).

They have a YouTube channel with videos like this about a large number of train stations.
I am not holding my breath about using passports with the ticket machines. I am sure that it is not even on their long list of to-dos considering that their website is only in Chinese and the difficulties for a non-Chinese to even buy online. Their efforts are on the 99.8% of their clients. Lines at tickets counters now are better since Chinese can use the machines (which not everybody seems to have figured out) and can even travel on some high-speed trains without a paper ticket (which even fewer Chinese seem to know).

It's true that once they put in a long row of those machines, then the marked pick-up window seems to disappear. But the last time that happened, with no window marked for pick up, the 值班员 told me that every window could issue tickets for pick up. So I just lined up at the one with shortest line.

@889

I picked up tickets ordered on ctrip in Nanning at a ticket kiosk.
So it works but I'm sure not everywhere.

What do you mean by ticket kiosk? The counter where they sell tickets? If so, of course, that's the only place. Or you mean, a hole in the wall in town?

Agree with 889, while some counters are for refund, exchange, military, etc, I just go to the shortest line even if I am not supposed to. If you are Chinese they probably send you away, but once they see my white face they are probably thinking that the stupid foreigner doesn't know what he is doing and I get my tickets. As a foreigner, I often find it useful to play dumb and forget any language skills that I have. They will just give up and you get your way. In these types of circumstances, my better half who is Chinese stays away otherwise it wouldn't work.

The term "kiosk" might not be the best English translation, but "火车售票处" is what we're trying to describe. It matters not if they are hole in the places, as long as they have the ability to sell and issue tickets on official stock. Are they allowed to print tickets purchased on Ctrip? Your PEK experience suggests no, but I'm encouraged by the fact that a random kiosk in Nanning (most certainly a hole in the wall) could.

I guess that all these places who are selling tickets and that have the ability to print them are official outlets. I have never found one where I could get my tickets (in Shanghai and Nanjing). The fact that some people have been able in a few places makes me believe that they "can" but generally they "won't" because they don't want to or are not supposed to.

To me, the idea of a place being able to sell, but not issue seems completely illogical. In the early days of online ticketing, I never had problems picking up tickets at kiosks, but then the policy strangely changed to train stations only (didn't need to be your train station). Perhaps this policy has been reversed again? Or maybe it's a Ctrip only policy? More data points (e.g. from the OP) would be useful because this happens to be a case in which empirical evidence is probably more telling than any official documentation we might be able to dig up.