China Travel Forum

[ORELIA]

Can an English only speaking person realistically buy tickets to Kunming at the Train Station?
I was all ready to do my own thing after the comments on a prior message in this forum ,Then I was taking to a Chinese student waiter tonight practicing Thank You etc Then when he asked how we were travelling to China his comment was that we were in for a hard time. He was quite negative about two simple English speaking tourist doing their own thing in China

[kamal]

of course you can do it--just beware of them trying to cheat you or saying they don't have this type of seat(you don't want to travel hard seat--unless a short distance)---and on the whole buy only from the station -not touts or the like(you may find the ticket is no good)--and at the main station there will probably have some one who can speak english(some)--best bet--get want you want written down in chinese characters--give them the paper with the note--and it'll be easy-or use the guide book with the chinese characters and your destinations--thats my humble advice--i'm sure it won't be completly smooth-(nothing in china is)-but there won't be any major bumps--
happy tour

[Guest]

It's straightforward, only takes a little more effort. In 3 months travel through China I bought nearly all my train tickets directly on the station, and didn't have any real problems. I don't speak more than 10 words Chinese (must admit I did use a phrasebook in the beginning ...). But Canton to Kunming should be easy, since Canton is a lot more used to English than people in other parts of China.
There was an English speaking staff at Nanning Railway Station and she helped me get to Guilin and two other English speaking Finnish travellers to Shanghai. Guangzhou is bigger city and its two main rail stations should have English speaking staff to help international travellers.
Get your hostel or hotel manager to help write the name of the City you are travelling to and the date of travel. Then show this information to the staff at the railway station booking counters.
If you do not know which class of seat or sleeper to book, chances are you will be allocated the more expensive soft seat or soft sleeper. Top/middle and bottom bunk will be communicated to you using hand signs and you can nod to agree or shake your head to disagree. It is really quiet easy.
Good luck.