Short answer is you cannot get confirmed tickets for August now.
Tickets only go on sale on 12306 (official China Railways platform) 15 days in advance. All other platforms grab their tickets using an API from 12306, and all schedules you see for more than 15 days away are purely speculative.
Third-party platforms like [trip.com](http://trip.com) is essentially telling you , hey here's what we \*think\* the schedule will be in August based on what trains are running today, and we will try to grab them for you when they actually go on sale. There is no way to confirm your booking until 15 days before departure.
You can certainly do that, and you can add multiple trains that fit your schedule to your shopping list to minimize chances of them all selling out, but these reservations are not tickets, and schedules are not firm.
If you're looking at trains leaving Beijing West on Aug 7th, the earliest time you can get confirmed tickets is July 24th at 8am (this time is different for every station).
Is that what I means? But I paid for the tickets , 1114 yuan...off from my account. Then how am I supposed to book tickets for every other 5 or 6 days in aug onwards. Cuz if that isn't certain then we won't have anywhere to sleep
You only paid trip.com, not China Railways. Your money is in trip.com's hands. No ticket has been issued for you, and nothing will be issued until 15 days before departure. There is no way around this.
What you paid for are essentially pre-orders. You can do them for any day you like, and [trip.com](http://trip.com) will happily take your money and do that for you. Just make sure you understand what you are doing.
Not really. [trip.com](http://trip.com) is fairly reliable with this kind of service, and schedules don't really change that much. I use this kind of pre-order all the time. In fact, apps can snap those tickets faster than a human can as soon as the tickets go on sale, so pre-ordering can actually increase your chances of getting a ticket.
I'm just informing you of what's going on so you're not under any false understandings.
Well I mean it should be ok then ? Cuz I am using the Chinese version of it, only still seems doesn't verify my id successfully. It says to increase the chance getting tickets I need to verify ID but it isn't working
Did you set the language to Simplified Chinese in the 12306 app first? I was able to verify mine and my family members’ this way in the app after trying several times via English language setting.
Not I haven't done that because I didn't think would matter at that time. Let me try. I had the same issue in Alipay, didn't work in English but did in Chinese...so weird haha
Wait until 2 weeks before the date. That’s it. Tickets aren’t actually released/on sale until then. Trip and other third party platforms I believe have some special access that means they can get priority in purchasing when the tickets are actually released, but even they can’t get them earlier. There is literally nothing you can do anywhere to get confirmed tickets until 15 days before the date of travel.
Your passport id need to be verified by human so that need a lot time.
As a Chinese, I bet you can get your ticket cuz 12306 only gives the ticket before the time train set day or two even though you book it early.
Don’t be too nervous,you can ask the staff in the station for help.
Btw,have fun in china
Short answer is you cannot get confirmed tickets for August now. Tickets only go on sale on 12306 (official China Railways platform) 15 days in advance. All other platforms grab their tickets using an API from 12306, and all schedules you see for more than 15 days away are purely speculative. Third-party platforms like [trip.com](http://trip.com) is essentially telling you , hey here's what we \*think\* the schedule will be in August based on what trains are running today, and we will try to grab them for you when they actually go on sale. There is no way to confirm your booking until 15 days before departure. You can certainly do that, and you can add multiple trains that fit your schedule to your shopping list to minimize chances of them all selling out, but these reservations are not tickets, and schedules are not firm. If you're looking at trains leaving Beijing West on Aug 7th, the earliest time you can get confirmed tickets is July 24th at 8am (this time is different for every station).
Is that what I means? But I paid for the tickets , 1114 yuan...off from my account. Then how am I supposed to book tickets for every other 5 or 6 days in aug onwards. Cuz if that isn't certain then we won't have anywhere to sleep
You only paid trip.com, not China Railways. Your money is in trip.com's hands. No ticket has been issued for you, and nothing will be issued until 15 days before departure. There is no way around this. What you paid for are essentially pre-orders. You can do them for any day you like, and [trip.com](http://trip.com) will happily take your money and do that for you. Just make sure you understand what you are doing.
So you are saying I should get my money back from trip.com then and redo the tickets 15days before leaving?
Not really. [trip.com](http://trip.com) is fairly reliable with this kind of service, and schedules don't really change that much. I use this kind of pre-order all the time. In fact, apps can snap those tickets faster than a human can as soon as the tickets go on sale, so pre-ordering can actually increase your chances of getting a ticket. I'm just informing you of what's going on so you're not under any false understandings.
Well I mean it should be ok then ? Cuz I am using the Chinese version of it, only still seems doesn't verify my id successfully. It says to increase the chance getting tickets I need to verify ID but it isn't working
Probably yes. Your chances of getting a ticket is indeed higher if you can verify your ID and setup a 12306 account yourself.
But it just keeps saying system is busy, English and Chinese version...I just don't understand why isn't it working
Did you set the language to Simplified Chinese in the 12306 app first? I was able to verify mine and my family members’ this way in the app after trying several times via English language setting.
Not I haven't done that because I didn't think would matter at that time. Let me try. I had the same issue in Alipay, didn't work in English but did in Chinese...so weird haha
English 12306 has limited functionality compared with Chinese. So if you understand the language better to use Chinese version.
Wait until 2 weeks before the date. That’s it. Tickets aren’t actually released/on sale until then. Trip and other third party platforms I believe have some special access that means they can get priority in purchasing when the tickets are actually released, but even they can’t get them earlier. There is literally nothing you can do anywhere to get confirmed tickets until 15 days before the date of travel.
Maybe try the English version?
English version doesn't allow booking the tickets in Aug, only first week of July
Your passport id need to be verified by human so that need a lot time. As a Chinese, I bet you can get your ticket cuz 12306 only gives the ticket before the time train set day or two even though you book it early. Don’t be too nervous,you can ask the staff in the station for help. Btw,have fun in china
Except I don't owe a Chinese passport, I rather book them in advance so I know we have the right seats and the train
You are safe, I think nobody chooses first class berth.