Great Firewall of China and Facebook

[Cruiser Elite]

Well it is the official booking system so YES is best system to use

 

[jase05]

Well it is the official booking system so YES is best system to use

Cheers. I’ve just always found Trip so easy and workable so haven’t looked elsewhere and just stuck with them for the sake of it.
Might check them out for the next time we visit

 

[kpc]

Is 12306 good?
Have always just used Trip and it’s worked well so haven’t looked at anything else

I believe trip.com charges a small surcharge whereas 12306 does not.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yes Trip charge small commission but it is neglible in AU$ terms so if you happy with Trip stay with them - my Chinese friends just tell me always use 12306 as you get access to ALL available seats - i do not know of Trips access is in anyway restricted

 

[LionKing]

If you are transferring via Hong Kong, I would strongly recommend you purchase SoSIM service, which will provide you with a cheaper and more flexible option whilst roaming in China, have access to all essnetial social media.

 

[moa999]

but it is neglible in AU$ terms so if you happy with Trip stay with them

It's 20CNY (A$4.35) per ticket. Negligible for a long journey, but can be quite a percentage on short trips in Economy.

The other advantage of 12306 is the ability to waitlist which you can't do on trip.com. Afaik it's a complicated ticketing system and they gradually release tickets for shorter segments over time.
And I've been told trip's advance purchase feature often fails to get tickets.

you purchase SoSIM service,

Just a HK MVNO (owned by 3 HK)

All of the various travel eSims (Airalo, Saily, Flexiroam etc) are essentially wholesale roaming data SIMs from one operator or another (popular ones seem to be from operators in HK, Singapore, Poland and Jersey) and some of the sellers use multiple carriers. The ones exiting in HK are probably best for China given it's less distance for the traffic to travel.

And much like immigration the HK based telcos including CMHK are not seen as mainland carriers