Last updated: 27 October 2026
Direct answer. Children cannot travel alone on Chinese trains; one child under 1.2 m rides free with each adult. A child ticket costs half the seat fare, for children between 1.2 m and 1.5 m, or — since 1 January 2023 — for children over 6 and under 14. Above that, full price.
Buying for a child is the part of Chinese rail ticketing where two rules sit side by side and travellers usually quote only one of them. China Railway publishes both on its own English site: a height rule that decides who rides free, and an age rule that dates from 1 January 2023 and decides who gets the discount. This page sets out each rule as published, then the three details that actually change the price at the counter — the one-free-child limit, the berth rule, and which identity document goes on the booking.
Fares themselves are not quoted here: the discount is published as a percentage, and a percentage is only useful once you know the fare for your route. Booking mechanics and seat types are covered on separate pages, linked at the end.
China Railway's English FAQ answers the child question twice, from two different angles. Both answers are reproduced below because they are not the same rule.
| Question the rule answers | What the FAQ states |
|---|---|
| Who travels free | One child under 1.2 m in height, accompanied by an adult, free of charge |
| Who needs a child ticket, by height | Children between 1.2 m and 1.5 m |
| Who pays full price, by height | Children taller than 1.5 m |
| Who gets the child discount, by age (from 1 January 2023) | Children over 6 years old and under 14 years old |
| Who pays full price, by age (from 1 January 2023) | Children over 14 years old |
The height rule is the older of the two and is stated in terms of who may board free. The age rule is explicitly dated: from 1 January 2023, discount tickets are booked for children over 6 and under 14, and full-price tickets for children over 14. The FAQ sets out both without saying which one governs when a child is, for example, tall for six years old. That reconciliation is not published, so it is not asserted here — the safe move is to state the child's age and height when booking and let the counter apply the rule.
The free place is not a general exemption for small children; it is a per-adult allowance. One adult may be accompanied by one child under 1.2 m free of charge. Where there is more than one child under 1.2 m, only one of them travels free and the others need child tickets.
The same limit appears a second time in the FAQ in age terms: each adult passenger holding a paid ticket may board with one child under the age of 6 holding a free child ticket, and any further child must board on a discount child ticket. Two children under 1.2 m therefore means one free place and one paid child ticket, not two free places.
A free child ticket also carries no reserved seat. The child travels with the adult rather than in a seat of their own, which matters on a sold-out train: the adult's seat is the only seat in the booking.
The FAQ states the discount as a percentage rather than an amount: child tickets are available for seat tickets, extra-fast tickets and air-conditioned tickets at a discount of 50% of the total of the seat ticket and other published subsidiary tickets.
Three conditions attach to that percentage, and each one can turn a half-price plan into a full-price line on the bill.
On an overnight train the berth clause is the one that decides the budget, because the half-price rule applies to the seat element, not to a berth occupied by one child.
The FAQ is direct on this point: under the relevant provisions of contract law, children are not allowed to take the train alone in principle, and must be accompanied by an adult with full capacity for civil conduct.
That is a condition of carriage rather than a pricing rule, but it determines whether a booking is possible at all. There is no unaccompanied-minor service described on the English site, so none is asserted here.
Children can be booked two ways, depending on whether they hold an identity document.
The second route is what makes a family booking possible before a child holds a passport of their own, and it also explains a rule that surprises people: one valid ID can be used to buy only one ticket for the same train on the same date. For children without ID cards, the FAQ's workaround is to buy the child tickets under the accompanying adult's identity information in the same order, so a family of four is not blocked by the one-ticket-per-ID rule.
Four things decide the price of travelling with a child: whether the child is under 1.2 m and travelling with an adult who has a free place left, whether the child falls inside the height band or the age band for a child ticket, whether the child occupies a berth alone, and whether the child has an identity document to book against. Everything else — a family ticket, a child fare for a specific route, a discount for a second child under 1.2 m — is not published on the English site and is not claimed here.
Seat types and what each one buys you are set out in China train seat classes; the booking channels themselves in how to book China high-speed rail; the luggage allowance that applies to a child's bags in China train luggage rules. For cross-border services from Hong Kong, see Hong Kong high-speed rail, and for whether to take the train at all on a given leg, train or fly in China.
China train tickets for children: who rides free, who needs a half-price child ticket, and how berths and identity documents work at booking.
Not always. One child under 1.2 m travelling with an adult goes free, with no reserved seat. Children between 1.2 m and 1.5 m need a child ticket, and children taller than 1.5 m pay the full seat fare.
Since 1 January 2023 the FAQ states that child discount tickets are booked for children over 6 and under 14 years old, and full-price tickets for children over 14. It publishes this age rule alongside the height rule without stating which takes precedence.
Child tickets are sold at a discount of 50% of the total of the seat ticket and other published subsidiary tickets, on seat, extra-fast and air-conditioned tickets. A child who uses a berth alone pays a full-price berth ticket plus a half-price air-conditioned ticket on an air-conditioned train.
No. The FAQ states that children are not allowed to take the train alone in principle and must be accompanied by an adult with full capacity for civil conduct.
Add the child's valid ID to My Passengers on 12306.cn if they have one. If they do not, the identity document of an accompanying adult can be used, as long as the name, ID type and ID number all belong to the same person.
All sources retrieved 27 October 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the official pages themselves are the specification.
| Fact used on this page | Source |
|---|---|
| S1 — Children not allowed to take the train alone in principle; must be accompanied by an adult with full capacity for civil conduct | China Railway (12306) English FAQ, retrieved 27 October 2026 https://www.12306.cn/en/faq.html |
| S2 — One child under 1.2 m free per adult; further children under 1.2 m need child tickets; 1.2–1.5 m child tickets; taller than 1.5 m full-price seat tickets; children may share berths with adults holding sleeper tickets | China Railway (12306) English FAQ, retrieved 27 October 2026 https://www.12306.cn/en/faq.html |
| S3 — From 1 January 2023, child discount tickets for children over 6 and under 14, full price over 14; one child under 6 with a free child ticket per adult, no reserved seat; further children on discount child tickets | China Railway (12306) English FAQ, retrieved 27 October 2026 https://www.12306.cn/en/faq.html |
| S4 — Child ticket at 50% of the total of seat ticket and other published subsidiary tickets (seat, extra-fast, air-conditioned); full-price berth plus half-price air-conditioned ticket where a berth is used alone; seat type same as adult's; destination not farther than adult's | China Railway (12306) English FAQ, retrieved 27 October 2026 https://www.12306.cn/en/faq.html |
| S5 — Child valid IDs can be added to My Passengers; where a child has no valid ID, an accompanying adult's document may be used if name, ID type and number belong to the same person; one valid ID buys one ticket per train per date | China Railway (12306) English FAQ, retrieved 27 October 2026 https://www.12306.cn/en/faq.html |