Goodbye, Paper Tickets! Use E-ticket to take High-speed Trains in China

China is about to pilot E-ticket in some of its high-speed lines by the end of 2018.Passengers will check in by swiping their ID cards or mobile phones, without needing a paper ticket. People can now buy high-speed trains tickets online, but in most train stations, paper tickets is required for station check-in.

Currently, high-speed trains between Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and some major cities can use can check in by swiping ID cards. But in many other stations, paper tickets are still a must to check in. E-tickets will make the check-in more efficient.

The change of train ticket in China has gone through four generations.

The first generation: cardboard train tickets

This is the "cardboard ticket" at 25mm * 57mm, which began in the 40s and ended in 90s.

The second generation: soft paper train ticket

Since December 10, 2009, the one-dimensional bar code of soft paper ticket has been changed to the use of two-dimensional bar code anti-counterfeiting ticket system, which contains information of train number, price, place of sale, type of ticket, etc.

The third generation: Magnetic medium train ticket

Since July 1, 2007, the magnetic media ticket has been introduced. It uses magnetic media to record ticket information and can be used on self-service ticket checker, which costs 10 seconds only to check in, 10 times faster then manual check-in.

The fourth generation: E-ticket

The beginning of June 2011 saw the coming of e-tickets. In stations of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, passengers can simply use their ID cards directly to check via the self-service machines.