June 5 (Friday)

Train tickets for the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday (June 19) will go on sale.

Set your alarm and start purchasing tickets.

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Check Sale Start Time

Open the Railway 12306 App

Click on the “My” interface

Select “Check Sale Start Time”

Free Refund for Mistaken Purchase

If you purchase a ticket successfully

within 30 minutes and at least 4 hours before departure

you can process a refund online

with no cancellation fee.

Waitlist Purchase

Open the Railway 12306 App

Click “Waitlist” on the purchase page

Add different trains and seat types as needed

to join the waitlist.

Phone Ticket Purchase for Senior Passengers

Passengers aged 60 and above

purchasing tickets for travel 3 days or more before departure

can call the Railway 12306 customer service hotline to book tickets.

“Pet Travel” Service

Starting April 8

based on the successful trial of high-speed rail pet transport services

the railway department has launched the “Pet Travel” service

offering two transport modes: “Travel with Pet” and “Pet Solo Travel”

for pet transportation.

“Light Travel” Service

Open the Railway 12306 App

Go to the “All Applications” page on the home screen

Click “Light Travel” and place an order.

All travelers must purchase tickets

through official railway channels

using only the Railway 12306 official website and

the “Railway 12306” official App.

Railway 12306 App

The Railway 12306 App is the official mobile ticketing platform for China’s railway system, launched in 2013 by the China State Railway Group. It replaced traditional in-person ticket purchasing, allowing users to book, modify, and cancel train tickets online nationwide. The app is named after the 12306.cn website, which was introduced in 2011 to streamline ticket sales and reduce long queues at stations.

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It commemorates the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Miluo River in 278 BCE as a protest against government corruption. The festival is marked by dragon boat races and eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), which originated from efforts to retrieve and honor Qu Yuan’s body.