By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: How to buy a train ticket?
How best to buy a train ticket and not speaking Putonghua?
12 years 30 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
Well you have four choices:
1. Have a Chinese friend go buy the ticket for you.
2. Have the same friend write down what you want and you can show it to the ticket agent.
3. Hand gestures and pointing can get you a long way.
4. Just hand them some money and see where you end up at the end of your trip.
HugAPanda:
4. Just hand them some money and see where you end up at the end of your trip. That sounds like fun!!
DaBen:
That's pretty much how I went camping last time. Threw some money on the counter and told them I want the next train leaving that has a stop about four hours away.
it depends on where you are,vthe major cities will have a booth set up for foreigners but good luck finding it.
what i do is printout a list of trains that i want to take and tell them the city (you can also print out the seat classes). and days are you can write it down for them most will know. (but learn the days of the week it is easy) do your homework many cities sound similar so you might have to have someone write down the city name in chinese.
if you want a specific seat/sleeper. have that written down. i'm surprised many people in china dont understand pinyin, especially since you need to enter pinyin into computers and phones.
if you have a chinese friend have them text you a message with all the details including a list of trains you are willing to take.
