OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2012. ICBC chalked up new record of payments for railway tickets sold online during the Chinese New Year holiday in 2012, as passengers nowadays prefer the new way of buying railway tickets online. Statistics show that during the 40-day holiday period, 4.12 million railway tickets have been paid via ICBC Internet Banking amounting to RMB 1.007 billion. Highest number of train tickets sold online in one day could go up to nearly 190,000, totaling more than RMB 52 million. ICBC ranked No.1 among all the banks providing online payment service for passengers to buy train tickets online, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

Since the first railway train ticket successfully sold and paid in China on June 11, 2011 via ICBC Internet Banking, more than 6.7 million train tickets have teen sold and paid through ICBC online railway ticketing payment system to a tune of nearly RMB 1.5 billion, said an executive with ICBC.

At present, all train tickets are available for sale online. Passengers just login the website of China Railway Customer Service Center (http://www.12306.cn/) and register, follow the instructions to check and book their train tickets. Once finished, they can use the ICBC bank card already registered under Internet Banking to pay online. Railway authority will send the details of the tickets to the buyers via email or SMS. Travelers can use own identity card to collect the paper train tickets at any railway ticketing office. Train stations, of Beijing-Tianjin inter-city line and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail are equipped with devices to check second-generation identity cards. Travelers are allowed to use the second-generation identity card (used when buying the ticket) at the automatic ticket-checking device to enter or exit the train station, enjoying the fast and convenient "green" service.