Real-Name Bookings and Timed Entries: Why They Break Trips

Why the Name at the Gate Decides the Day

In China a reserved train seat and a timed museum slot are not open vouchers: each is attached to one named traveller, one passport number and, for timed entries, one hour. Mistakes surface at a scanner, minutes before departure.

Real Name Means the Passport, Not the Booking

The ticket name is matched against the machine-readable zone of the passport in your hand. Spelling, order and spacing all count, so a shortened first name or a missing middle name can scan as a mismatch, and a mismatch is no ticket.

We collect passport data, not nicknames. A renewed passport also breaks a booking made on the old number, so tell us the day it happens; the registrations in insurance, permits and compliance use the same data.

Release Windows Are Set by the Venue, Not by Us

Rail inventory and timed-entry slots open on schedules the operator or venue decides, at a fixed hour and usually as a whole block; popular slots can go within minutes in domestic holidays.

Nothing we do later recovers a slot released while details were still being discussed. A complete request arriving before a release beats a perfect one arriving after it, which is why the first reply in our 48-hour planning process is a shape to confirm, not a finished plan. We hold no private channel the public lacks.

Correction and Substitution Are Not the Same Thing

• A correction is a name entered wrongly. Spotted before the ticket is issued, it costs nothing. Once the ticket exists, it becomes a cancellation.
• A substitution is a traveller who cannot come. Rail seats and timed entries are not transferable, so the seat is released and the booking re-run against whatever inventory remains.

A correction made early is invisible; a substitution made late depends on remaining availability, and the refund boundaries then in force apply - see deposits, payments and refunds.

If one of four drops out, the other three travel as booked and only that record is touched; if all four move dates, the set is re-booked.

Three Things We Ask You to Do Early

• Send passport data when you approve the itinerary shape, not after the plan is priced.
• Report a passport renewal immediately, with the new document number.
• Flag changes in party size before tickets are issued, because after issue it is a substitution.

Accountability sits with the licensed entity: our operator's travel agency licence is L-GD-CJ00234, described on our licence page and in how a trip is built behind the scenes.

Our Details, for You to Check

ChinaTravelPlus is delivered by Shenzhen Baochun International Tourism Group, established 18 January 1996 and registered in Futian District, Shenzhen, with ground teams in Hunan (Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang, Changsha), Yunnan, Zhejiang and Guangdong. The travel agency licence is L-GD-CJ00234, approved under Lv Fa [2013] No. 180, issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on 30 March 2022, covering domestic, outbound and inbound tourism. The business licence carries credit code 91440300192407197A; the legal representative is Cao Shaolin. Groups and trade bookings follow the same rules: the models are on our cooperation page.

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