Last summer, I had difficulty on several occasions in trying to purchase train tickets on short notice. On one occasion, I was in Baoji, Shaanxi trying to get to Kunming. I was told there were no tickets, so I bought a ticket to Chengdu instead.

Right before leaving, I began talking to some train employees - a woman and a man. They told me it was easy to get a ticket to Kunming. The only question was, when did I want to go? These two kind people traded my Chengdu ticket for one to Kunming. I gave them a good tip (though they initially refused twice), for I was very thankful.

If you're in a pinch and really need a ticket, try talking to some train employees who are off-duty, or who don't work the ticket lines. The ticket workers are often too harried to have the patience to decipher English or poor Chinese speaking.