If you do not read Chinese, it will be very difficult to find your seat on a Chinese train. While Chinese passengers and the train attendants are usually very helpful and would gladly walk you to your seat, below is a simple guide to help you read a Chinese train ticket. 

Sample 1     A China Train Ticket

The sample above are what a China train ticket looks like. It's a paper ticket .  In this ticket from the left top, shows the information like below:

• A)   Ticket number, this is the serial number of train tickets issued from one terminal or ticket window

• B)   Departure station in Chinese

• C)   Departure station in pinyin, the spell of this pinyin accords with China Railway Passenger Transport Price List, which was released by Ministry of Railways.

• D)   Departure data and time - YYYY年MM月DD日hh:mm开

• E)    Ticket price in RMB

• F)    Validity information

       ---限乘当日当次车 - valid only on the specified date and specified train

       ---在3日内到有效 - the journey must be completed by day 3, day 1 is the departure day 

       ---中途下车失效 - invalid if journey broken

• G)   21 digital numbers

• H)   Code of the train ticket issuing station, it may not be the departure station. If you buy a ticket from Beijing to Shanghai at Hangzhou train station, then this code is Hangzhou train station

• I)    Code of ticket sale way

• J)    Code of ticket window

• K)   Date of ticket released

• L)   Ticket number

• M)  Ticket issuing station

• N)   Destination in Chinese

O)   Destination in pinyin

P)   carriage number, seat/sleeper number and train class  >> train number info details

       XX车YYY号 - carriage number XX and seat/sleeper number YYY 

       新 - New (higher standard)

       空调 - Air-conditioned 

       特快 - Express train 

       快速 - Fast train 

       普快 - Ordinary train 

       硬座 - Hard seat 

       软座 - Soft seat 

       硬卧 - Hard sleeper (上铺 - upper, 中铺 - middle, 下铺 - lower) 

       软卧 - Soft sleeper (上铺 - upper, 下铺 - lower) 

       高级软卧 - Deluxe Soft sleeper (上铺 - upper, 下铺 - lower) 

       一等座 - First class seat 

       二等座 - Second class seat 

• Q)   Discount info

• R)   2D bar code

• S)   Train number  >> train number info details

Sample.2   A named ticket