Using 12306 in English as a Foreigner

Register with a passport

An account is a passport record plus a login. The English platform takes valid foreign passports and nothing else, so the form is shorter than the Chinese one; the website and the app ask for the same data.

On the website (www.12306.cn/en)

1. Open the English site and registerGo to www.12306.cn/en and use the Register link; the whole site, payment page included, stays in English.
2. Set the ID type to PassportThe passenger details have an ID type field. Choose Passport. Skipping it is why a booking fails later.
3. Copy your name from the machine-readable zoneThe two lines at the bottom of the passport data page read surname first, then given names: enter them in that order.
4. Type the passport number as printedUppercase, no spaces, no hyphens. Letters are fine; added punctuation is what gets rejected.
5. Add an email and a mobile number that receives SMSThe email is the account identifier; give the number in international format with the country code.
6. Upload a photo of the passport data pageFull page, four corners visible, no glare. A cropped photo is the most common reason a first submission is refused.
7. Submit and waitIf the status reads Verification failed, the online route is closed and you go to a station window.

In the Railway 12306 app

1. Install the official app and choose EnglishFirst launch asks for your language. To change it later: Me, then Settings, then Language.
2. Register from My, then RegisterSame passport fields. If the app offers to scan the document, use it: the camera reads the machine-readable zone and fills the name in the right order.
3. Complete facial verification if offeredApp only, never the website, and a verified account can also change the destination of tickets bought for it at a counter or machine.
4. Check the passenger listUntil the status reads verified, the account can search but not buy.

Search and book

Enter the departure and arrival points and a date. The results list every train with times, journey length, and a column per seat class showing the price and how many tickets remain. You pick the class there; what each class gets you is in our guide to train seat classes.

You are choosing stations, not cities. Beijing has several (South, West, Chaoyang) and Shanghai splits between Hongqiao and Shanghai Station, so check which suits your hotel first: see Beijing's railway stations and Shanghai's railway stations. English and pinyin both work in the station field, so type "Beijing South".

Then the usual flow: choose the verified passenger, confirm the train and date, submit, and pay. The order is held only briefly. The ticket is electronic and your passport is the ticket; if a gate will not read it, use the staffed channel beside it. For the wider picture, see your first Chinese train trip and booking train tickets in China.

Pay with a foreign card

The payment page appears at the end of the booking and lists which methods your order will accept. Read that list rather than any guide, including this one.

On the official side the consistently supported methods are Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay. International Visa and Mastercard is where sources disagree: some state that international cards are accepted directly on 12306, while others say foreign cards reach 12306 only through Alipay or WeChat, or that the options are limited to those three. If your card appears on the payment page, use it; if not, pay through a wallet. Setup for both is in paying in China as a foreigner.

On Alipay, transactions of ¥200 or less carry no fee and anything above ¥200 carries 3% of the full amount, not just the part over the line. Refunds return the way the money came, with a delay set by your bank rather than by 12306.

Change and refund

Refund fees are charged on the ticket price and step down as departure gets closer.

Where a fee applies the minimum charged is ¥2, so a cheap short-hop ticket is not refunded in full. Requests must go in before the train leaves; refunds are processed on the site around the clock even when sales are paused.

Changing is usually cheaper than cancelling: moving to another train or date on the same route is a change, not a refund, and any fare difference is paid or returned. A ticket can normally be changed once. Changing the destination is stricter: at least 48 hours before the original departure, on the site or at a designated station window. The full rules are in changing and refunding train tickets.

When the English version fails

Nearly every failure reported by foreign users comes down to four things.

1. The image captcha. The website asks you to click characters or pictures described in Chinese, with no English alternative. Use the app, where login usually needs only an SMS code, or keep a translation app ready to read the instruction before you click.
2. Surname and given name swapped. The record must match the passport machine-readable zone: surname first, then given names. Filling it the way your airline profile does, or splitting a middle name into its own field, produces a record that will not verify and can be refused at the gate.
3. A passport number that will not go in. Letters are fine; formatting is what fails. Retype it by hand in uppercase and check letters that look like digits (letter O against zero, capital I against one) against the passport.
4. The check comes back as failed. Take the original passport to a staffed ticket window at any main station and ask for real-name verification. Staff check the document in person and the restriction lifts.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

Two more pages are worth ten minutes before your first departure: how Chinese train stations work and the luggage rules.

Compiled from the official 12306 English site and FAQ wording, platform documentation and user reports from foreign visitors, cross-checked 28 September 2026. Service windows, presale periods, verification times and payment methods change between app versions and between accounts; the options shown in your own account when you book are the authoritative version. Nothing here is financial or legal advice.