I love this. It encapsulates the issues of being a foreigner in China in one sparkling example. Thank you for sharing. You've made my morning.

For better or for worse, the national ID field is of critical importance in many databases and applications. As such, those of us without national IDs are often overlooked.

What’s the best way to search all of the trains departing from any particular city in China?

You are wearing the wrong set of glasses, bro. If you are shy about specifics, it's difficult for us to offer meaningful advice.

I’m asking that as a general question if I want to know where I can go today for fun. It would be nice to know which destinations are roughly 2, 3, or 4 hours from the departure city or what routes are available.

It's very well hidden away on 12306, in Chinese of course:

https://kyfw.12306.cn/otn/czxx/init

Trip.com doesn't seem to offer this information.

Thx! I’ll look into it later tonight.

I haven’t taken a D train in a very long time. I think these are the first generation HS trains in China? I was just searching train fares out of HZ and I see a lot of D trains that takes 10+ hours to Beijing South. Are these reconfigured trains and now the G-trains are the official bullet trains? Any comments about second class D-trains to Beijing? Any outlets/USB ports?

I dislike D trains because they are not especially fast, yet they are still air tight. "Air tight" is an endurable annoyance on G trains because it's a prerequisite for high speed, but consider the drawbacks:
-the onboard food is terrible and smells bad
-informed travelers stock up on KFC because it is less terrible, but also happens to smell bad

Just use an airplane for that route.

I’m assuming you either travel on G or airplane?

Which letter does China use for their Fuxing trains?

There's an interesting Wiki entry on Fuxing trains in English.

It contains this warnng:

"On 17 October 2018, China Railway Shanghai Group reported that it has implemented portable air quality measurement devices to monitor the level of hazardous fumes emitted by possibly substandard heat resistant surfaces in the passenger carriages as several complaints have been recorded by passengers and train drivers, stating the smell in the carriages is unbearable. Some passengers also suffered minor respiratory diseases such as coughing and sore throat."

I'm fairly sure that the Fuxing trains come under the same G code. G here just means "high speed rail" 高铁 Gaotie。

I'm not sure what to do right now. I just tried to book a same day ticket to Beijing and everything went well when I submitted my order. I see a pending charge on my Chase account. Just got an email from Trip.com telling me they they failed to issue a ticket.

"At least one passenger's Mainland China ID card hasn't been verified. Please go to the ticket window at any railway station to verify the ID card first."

So is the ticket actually issued and they just need to verify my ID then? I don't see any confirmation number beginning with an E though. What do I do now? I'm afraid of trying to order another ticket and be stuck with two tickets. I got a few hours before my scheduled departure. Not sure if I actually need to buy a ticket at the counter as I'm now confused.

Did you book with a Mainland ID? Or only a passport? Is it possible you didn't select "Passport" as the ID type?

Things are changing. Perhaps under the new system you just use your passport for certain trains -- as another poster here has suggested -- and the first time your passport needs to be verified. I'm only guessing, though. What you're reporting has not been the case before with trip/ctrip.

Check your control panel in trip.com and see the status of the ticket.

EDIT: I see this note has been added to the trip.com train FAQ: "*If this is your first time purchasing train tickets in China, please visit your nearest railway station to make your reservation. Once your passport has been verified at the railway station, you will be able to book train tickets online in the future." This has not been the case in the past.

https://hk.trip.com/pages/faq/

If you don't have an E number, you haven't been issued a ticket. CC charges should reverse automatically, but call trip to verify. And buy a ticket at the station.

I'm pretty sure I selected passport as my passport number appears with the word passport preceding the number.

I didn't create an account prior to booking. How can I check the status?

Edit: Nevermind, I didn't close the tab and just refreshed the page. I see my passport number and it says purchase failed in red at the top. Also, this isn't my first time purchasing train tickets with this passport. I purchased a ticket at the counter with my passport as recent as two days ago. Now what?