China’s online ticketing platform 12306 logged its 140-millionth sale for the 2026 Spring-Festival period at 08:00 on 7 February—six days into the travel season. Daily rail ridership has topped ten million for five consecutive days, prompting the addition of 1,249 extra services on 7 February alone.
China Rail attributed the growth to a longer public-holiday window and to recent visa-waiver agreements that have enticed more overseas tourists to integrate domestic segments into their China itineraries. New features on the 12306 English-language interface—launched quietly in January—now allow foreign passport-holders to select seats, add checked-baggage options and pay with overseas credit cards, removing friction that previously forced many to use third-party agents.
![Railway ticket sales hit 140 million as Spring-Festival demand outpaces 2025 levels]()
Travelers excited by these new booking conveniences but still in need of the proper travel documents can streamline the process through VisaHQ. The service’s China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) offers step-by-step guidance on current visa categories, required documentation and typical processing times, and even arranges secure courier pickup of passports—helping visitors match their visa approvals to newly purchased rail itineraries with minimal hassle.
For employers this means greater self-service capability for inbound staff and assignees, but also fiercer competition for peak-hour seats between major commercial centres. Policy advisors recommend booking refundable tickets for critical journeys and monitoring supply on the new real-time availability dashboard.
China Rail said it would continue to analyse anonymised demand data and, where feasible, convert single-unit high-speed trains into 16-car ‘double-sets’ to unlock capacity on saturated corridors such as Beijing–Shanghai. The operator has also asked station managers to extend bilingual customer-service hours and open additional manual gates for passengers carrying large musical instruments, sports gear or medical equipment, recognising the more diverse profile of holiday travellers this year.
China Rail attributed the growth to a longer public-holiday window and to recent visa-waiver agreements that have enticed more overseas tourists to integrate domestic segments into their China itineraries. New features on the 12306 English-language interface—launched quietly in January—now allow foreign passport-holders to select seats, add checked-baggage options and pay with overseas credit cards, removing friction that previously forced many to use third-party agents.
Travelers excited by these new booking conveniences but still in need of the proper travel documents can streamline the process through VisaHQ. The service’s China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) offers step-by-step guidance on current visa categories, required documentation and typical processing times, and even arranges secure courier pickup of passports—helping visitors match their visa approvals to newly purchased rail itineraries with minimal hassle.
For employers this means greater self-service capability for inbound staff and assignees, but also fiercer competition for peak-hour seats between major commercial centres. Policy advisors recommend booking refundable tickets for critical journeys and monitoring supply on the new real-time availability dashboard.
China Rail said it would continue to analyse anonymised demand data and, where feasible, convert single-unit high-speed trains into 16-car ‘double-sets’ to unlock capacity on saturated corridors such as Beijing–Shanghai. The operator has also asked station managers to extend bilingual customer-service hours and open additional manual gates for passengers carrying large musical instruments, sports gear or medical equipment, recognising the more diverse profile of holiday travellers this year.
