Starting from January 15, the railway authorities will optimize ticket change rules, expanding the scope of ticket changes. Passengers will be able to change their train tickets both before and after but on the same day of the departure of their originally scheduled trains, and they can change to any train departing within the pre-sale period. This will further facilitate ticket purchase and travel for passengers.

According to the current rules, at any time more than 48 hours before the departure of a train, passengers with the tickets of the train can change to any train within the pre-sale period. However, within 48 hours before departure or after the train has departed, changes can only be made for trains departing before 24:00 on the scheduled departure day.

The new rules expand the scope of ticket changes. Passengers can now change their tickets for trains departing within the pre-sale period both before and after but on the same day of departure. For changes made more than 48 hours before departure, no change fee will be charged. For changes made less than 48 hours before departure or after departure, there will be no change fee for changes to a train departing before or on the originally scheduled departure date. For changes to a train departing after the originally scheduled departure date, change fees will be charged on a progressive basis according to the time of application for the change. Specific change rules can be found by passengers on the official website of China Railway (12306.cn) and station announcements.

At the same time, the railway authorities remind passengers that the official website of China Railway (12306.cn) and the 12306 China Railway App (铁路12306) are the only two official online ticket booking platforms. It has never authorized any third-party platforms to sell train tickets. Passengers are strongly advised to purchase tickets through the official channels. Additionally, please confirm that the payment recipient is "China Railway Network Co., Ltd." to avoid the failure to get your money back in a later ticket refund or change.

Source: Official WeChat account of the China Railway (12306.cn)