Booking train tickets in advance for multiple destination

[skillphiliac]

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[clc]

From my experience, booking tickets well in advance in mainland China, is already a rather hard to achieve task, let alone to book multiple destination tickets in advance.

Well good luck and share your experience with us when you are done.

[889]

These are called 异地票 yidipiao. They are certainly available some times at some places -- I have bought them -- but it's not too clear how broadly they're available. I suspect, but don't know, that 异地票 are subject to a special quota, and that the number of tickets allocated to this quota is pretty small. Thus it may be possible to buy them in theory far more often than in practice. Ultimately, you'll never know what's possible till you walk up to a ticket counter and ask.

Note that the new service at www.12306.cn showing ticket availability throughout the country clearly demonstrates that ticket sales in China are now centrally controlled.

If you do manage to buy 异地票 there's a 5RMB commission.

Don't forget that ordinary tickets can normally be bought only 10 days in advance. This period is 20 days for Z and G trains and such, and is sometimes cut back at peak travel periods.

[dali3927]

Great information has been covered in previous replies, however, I'd like to share my experience about buying “异地票”， "异地票“ is available in some place, but not every city, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou should be available to get ”异地票“. Last week, I bought 11 hard sleeper tickets Beijing to Xi'an for my friends for July 18th and 11 return tickets from Xi'an to Beijing for July 25th, but I have to use a train ticket agent to get all the tickets, and paid additional fee 35 RMB for each ticket. I don't think I can get all the tickets all by myself, especially, 11 tickets. so my advice, if you want to save time and trouble, to use a tickets agent do all the work for you, for one tickets, they would ask 50 RMB additional fee. just be careful to choose ticket agent though.

[Erbse]

Let's say there is a train Beijing->Xian->Chengdu. Can I buy a 异地票 for this train from Beijing to Chengdu, but only go on the train in Xian?

[889]

"异地票 ("other place tickets") can only be bought if you're boarding the train at the start of the train's route."

This is just not true, not true at all.

I have, within the past few weeks, bought an 异地票 in Luoyang for the T97. While the T97 starts at Beijing Xi, I bought an 异地票 to board at Zhengzhou. There were signs above the ticket windows at Luoyang Station advertising that they sold 局外 tickets, that is, tickets from other railway districts.

Note that ticketing rules seem to have loosened in the past few years, though there's still not very much transparency about ticketing practices.

As to Erbse's idea, the sleeper will be re-sold long before the train reaches Xi'an.

[smalldog]

"异地票 ("other place tickets") can only be bought if you're boarding the train at the start of the train's route."

This is just not true, not true at all.

Ok, I'm wrong, and this page on Baidu confirms it: http://baike.baidu.com/view/772094.htm . I'm pretty certain it was true last year though. I'd better edit my previous post!