China Live Train Tracking
China operates the largest high-speed rail network in the world, with over 45,000 kilometres of dedicated high-speed track carrying the Fuxing and CRH (China Railway High-speed) trainsets at speeds up to 350 km/h. The network is run by China State Railway Group (China Railway), a state-owned company organised into 18 regional railway bureaus. This page tracks Chinese trains using timetable-based position interpolation sourced from official published schedules, since live GPS feeds from China Railway are not published for public API access.
The Beijing to Shanghai high-speed line is China's busiest corridor, covering 1,318 kilometres in as little as 4 hours 18 minutes on the fastest Fuxing services. The Beijing to Guangzhou line runs 2,298 kilometres south through Wuhan and Changsha in around 8 hours. Shanghai to Hangzhou, Guangzhou to Shenzhen, and Beijing to Tianjin are short, high-frequency intercity corridors with departures every few minutes at peak times. China's high-speed trains are classified by prefix letter: G trains (Fuxing/CRH, fastest, dedicated high-speed lines), D trains (slower CRH on shared or upgraded track), and C trains (short intercity services).
Conventional long-distance travel still relies on overnight sleeper trains, prefixed K (fast), T (express), or Z (direct, fewer stops). These trains offer hard seat, hard sleeper (6-berth open bays), and soft sleeper (4-berth closed compartment) classes, and remain the practical option for routes not yet covered by high-speed lines, including much of Xinjiang, Tibet, and the northeast. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway to Lhasa is the highest railway in the world, reaching 5,072 metres at Tanggula Pass, with pressurised carriages for passenger comfort at altitude.
Tickets are sold through the official 12306 website and app (12306.cn), which requires passport or Chinese ID registration and opens bookings 15 days before departure for most routes. Real-name ticketing means every passenger's ID is checked against the ticket at security and boarding. Foreign visitors can also book through third-party platforms such as Trip.com, which interface with the 12306 system and accept international payment cards.
Major interchange hubs include Beijing South (the primary high-speed terminal for southbound Fuxing services), Shanghai Hongqiao (combined with Shanghai's main airport for seamless air-rail transfer), and Guangzhou South. These stations are among the busiest in the world by passenger volume and are designed with airport-style security screening and large-capacity waiting halls to handle peak holiday travel, particularly during Spring Festival (Chunyun), when China Railway carries the largest annual human migration on Earth.