Foreign passengers need to show their original passports when collecting train tickets that have been booked online.
If, however, you used your passport to book a ticket online, and were later issued with a new passport, you will be unable to collect your ticket with your new passport.
- Collecting tickets after your passport has been renewed
- Collecting tickets if your passport is being renewed and the old one has been suspended
We also give some real examples of how we helped our customers deal with such situations. But since different train stations have their own rules for dealing with problems, our examples don’t represent a standard China Railway policy and are only for reference.
How to Collect Tickets after Your Passport Has Been Renewed
China Railway’s Official Answer
A passport certificate
- If your old passport has not expired, you can still use it to collect your ticket(s).
- If your old passport has expired, your ticket(s) booked online are not available anymore. You need to cancel your ticket(s) online or at the train station, and buy new ticket(s) with your new passport.
Our Customers’ Actual Experiences
Sometimes the station clerks won’t check the expiry date on your passport very carefully.
We usually advise our customers to try first to collect their tickets with their old passports, and in most cases, they can successfully get their tickets because the clerks overlook the expiry date when checking!
Some of our customers hand in both new and old passports to the clerks to prove that they have renewed their passports, and sometimes the clerks then allow them to collect their tickets.
To sum up, some train stations are not very strict about expired passports. So this is what we recommend when dealing with the passport renewal issue:
- Bring both old and new passports to the station.
- Find a ticket window offering both ticket collecting and purchasing services.
- Hand in your collection number along with your old passport.
- If the station clerk discovers that your passport has expired, please hand in your new passport and explain that you’ve updated your passport in the interim.
- If the clerk is still strict in adhering to the rules, then your last choice will be to cancel your ticket and buy a new one at the ticket window.
Collecting Tickets When Your Passport Is Being Renewed
Official Answer
According to China Railway’s explanation, only original passports can be used to collect tickets booked online. So if you cannot bring your passport, your tickets are invalid and cannot be collected.
If you still need to purchase a ticket, please go to the Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration (出入境管理局) in your city and get a passport certificate. You can buy train tickets with this certificate at any railway station in China.
* Please note that the certificate can only be used for buying train tickets at the station, not for booking train tickets online.
How to get a passport certificate:
- Go to the Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration (出入境管理局) in your city.
- Explain why you need the certificate.
- Present something that can prove your identity, such as a copy of your passport or your driving license.
- Sometimes the bureau needs you to get a certificate from the PSB (Public Security Bureau); or you just need to do whatever else they ask you to do.
Our Customers’ Actual Experiences
Some of our customers have successfully collected their tickets (booked with their expired passports) with their passport certificates.
Although China Railway said that the certificates can’t be used for collecting tickets, some of our customers explained to the clerks the reasons for their passport problems and still successfully got their tickets with their certificates. So sometimes the outcome depends on the discretion of the different stations and clerks.
So this is what we recommend you to do when your passport has been suspended and you need to collect your tickets:
- Don’t rush to cancel your tickets.
- Go to the Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration and get a passport certificate.
- Bring your certificate to the station and try to collect your tickets. (You may need to explain the whole thing to station clerks.)
- If it still doesn’t work out, please cancel your ticket(s) online and buy new ones at the ticket window with your passport certificate.
Choose Ticket Delivery Service to Avoid All These Troubles
If you choose to use a China train ticket service platform, most offer a ticket delivery service. You can choose to have your ticket(s) delivered to your address, to save all these passport invalidity issues. Clerks will deal with everything for you at the train station and send the tickets to your hotel or place of residence.
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