How to read the information on a Chinese train ticket

We have more and more guests travel in China via high-speed train, but when you get your Chinese train ticket, you will find that most of the information are in Chinese. So here is a useful introduction on how to read and get the correct information on a Chinese train ticket.

Before you read a train ticket, you should get some basic knowledge:

1. Chinese use 24-hour time system
We do not use AM and PM, so you should read the departure time on Chinese train ticket in 24-hours time system.
From 00:01 AM to 12:59 PM, we also use 00:01 to 12:59.
But from 01:00 PM to 11:59 PM, you should transfer the time system in your mind, we use 13:00 to 23:59.
Which means:

12-hour time system	24-hour time system
00:01 - 11:59 AM	00:01 - 11:59
12:00 - 12:59 PM	12:00 - 12:59
01:00 PM	13:00
02:00 PM	14:00
03:00 PM	15:00
04:00 PM	16:00
05:00 PM	17:00
06:00 PM	18:00
07:00 PM	19:00
08:00 PM	20:00
09:00 PM	21:00
10:00 PM	22:00
11:00 PM	23:00
11:59 PM	23:59
00:00	00:00

2. Carriage, seats and sleepers Chinese-English bilingual

中文(Chinese character)	English
硬座	Hard Seat
软座	Soft Seat
商务座（高铁、动车）	Business Calss Seat (in High-speed Train)
一等座（高铁、动车）	First Calss Seat (in High-speed Train)
二等座（高铁、动车）	Second Calss Seat (in High-speed Train)
软卧	Soft Sleeper
硬卧	Hard Sleeper
上铺（软卧，硬卧）	Upper Bunk (Soft Sleeper and Hard Sleeper are Both with Upper Bunk )
中铺（硬卧）	Middle Bunk (Hard Sleeper Only)
下铺（软卧，硬卧）	Lower Bunk (Soft Sleeper and Hard Sleeper are Both with Lower Bunk )

3. Go to the correct railway station/ Get the correct railway staion info on ticket

In China, the railway station will named by the city, but now there are more than one stations in a city, so in most of the city/county/town, we will have a railway satation named by the city, the others add a direction (east, south, west, north) to tell they are other stations in this city.
Please note:
* Not all the railway stations in China have English signs, if you travel alone, please learn what is the city's Chinese characters.
* Not all the railway station signs translate the direction into English, some of them are in Chinese Pinyin (Chinese phonetic alphabet).
* Please read carefully which sation you will go to take your train, and which station the train will arrive on your destination city if you arrange a pick-up service.

*Learn direction in Chinese phonetic alphabet and Chinese characters:

中文(Chinese character)	拼音(phonetic alphabet)	English	Sample
东	Dong	East
南	Nan	South
西	Xi	West
北	Bei	North

4. Blue ticket take self-service entrance and red ticket take manual ticket checking entrance (in the same entrance gate).

Let us see the sample of Chinese railway ticket: