It's that time of year again - the Spring Festival travel rush season of "cigarettes, beer, instant noodles, spicy strips, drinks, and ham sausages." Before you squeeze onto the train and enjoy the conductor's warm reminder to "move your legs," have you got your ticket in hand? Get through the tips below, and you'll be able to grab tickets with more confidence.

1. An intuitive ticket-buying calendar. This year, Spring Festival travel rush train tickets go on presale 60 days in advance. Tickets for New Year's Eve go on sale on December 21.

2. Master the timing. Starting November 28, new tickets go on sale at every hour and half-hour between 8:00 and 18:00. The highest chance of "returned tickets" appearing is at 12:00 and 23:00 each day, so you can try your luck.

3. Secure the location. Is the 12306 website too laggy? Just avoid mainland nodes. With the help ofcircumventing the Great Firewallyou can pretend you're overseas and access 12306's overseas nodes. What is circumventing the Great Firewall? It's an essential home internet tool that helps you open Google.

4. If you still prefer phone booking and unfortunately live in overcrowded Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen, try adding the area code of a nearby region before the booking hotline 95105105. For example, if you're in Shanghai, try 0574-95105105 (Ningbo).

5. For those trapped on "Lazy Death Planet" and those with terminal procrastination, you can choose 12306 express ticket delivery. Currently it only supports Yunnan and Beijing, with a delivery fee of 17 yuan per item and delivery within three days.

6. Free ticket refunds - yes, that's available. During the Spring Festival travel rush, refunds are free for tickets with more than 15 days before departure, while refunds within 24 hours incur a 20% fee. You can change your ticket to a date more than 15 days away and then get a free refund. However, tickets within 48 hours of departure can only be changed to other trains on the same day shown on the ticket, so do it as early as possible.

7. Many train stations, including those in Beijing, have stopped selling platform tickets this year. Can those scenes of reluctant farewells and waving on the platform only be relived in movies? The solution is simple: just buy the cheapest train ticket and you can pass through the ticket gate to see someone off. For example, friends in Beijing can buy a hard-seat ticket from Beijing West Station to Dahuichang for just 2 yuan.

Source: Tencent Tech