Booking China HSR with a passport: verify before you buy

Updated 2026-10-14: Wildfire near Mongolia-China border in Inner Mongolia, 2,000 firefighters deployed.

Yes — a passport is one of the documents China Railway accepts, and you can buy a high-speed ticket online with it on the 12306 English site or the 12306 app. What catches people out is the order of operations: passport holders must pass an identity check before any ticket can be purchased, and the self-service ticket machines at stations do not accept passports.

1. Verify your passport on 12306 first

Register on the 12306 English website or the app and select passport as your document type. Enter your name, nationality and passport number exactly as they appear in the passport, in the same order. Many accounts verify automatically. If yours doesn't, the system asks you to upload a photo of the passport information page for manual review. That online route for foreign passport holders opened in November 2023; before then everyone had to queue at a station counter.

Pending verification does not block you. 12306's help pages say a registered user with a foreign passport in that state can buy up to 20 tickets on the site, and a passenger in that state up to four. You can also take the passport to a staffed ticket window at any railway station and have a clerk complete the check in person.

2. Buy the ticket

Tickets go on sale 15 days ahead of departure and stay available until 30 minutes before the train leaves. Sales and changes on 12306 run from 05:00 to 01:00 Beijing time. Pay on the English site or app with a Chinese or foreign bank card or a mobile payment app; at a station window you can also use RMB cash. Passport holders cannot use the self-service ticket machines — those read Foreign Permanent Resident ID Cards only — so buy at a staffed window instead.

3. Board with the same passport

There is no paper ticket. Scan the passport you booked with at the gate, and if the reader rejects it, join the staffed lane and show the same document. Since 1 October 2025 paper reimbursement receipts are no longer issued for rail journeys, only electronic invoices.

4. Changes and refunds

Refund fees are tiered by how early you cancel: nothing at eight days or more before departure, 5% of the fare between 48 hours and eight days, 10% between 24 and 48 hours, and 20% inside 24 hours. A mistaken purchase is refunded free if you cancel within 30 minutes of payment and more than four hours before departure, once per calendar day. One change per ticket is allowed.

Cover for a missed departure or a non-refundable hotel night varies a lot between policies, so compare all the main options before you commit to a rail leg.

Last checked: 2026-10-14