Good news for foreigners living in China with limited Chinese abilities; the China Railway ticket APP now recognises a smart phone’s language setting and redirects to the English version accordingly. But, and it’s a big but…
对于生活在中国但汉语能力有限的外国人来说是个好消息；中国火车票APP现在可以识别智能手机的语言设置并相应地重定向到英文版本。但是，这是一个很大的但是……
The update to the 12306 China Railway app was rolled out at midnight today, 12 December. With it, foreigners can buy tickets, obtain refunds and change their destination, and all in English.
12306中国铁路APP更新已于今天（12月12日）午夜推出。有了它，外国人可以用英语购买机票、获得退款和更改目的地。
In addition, a helpful FAQ section informs us that, using the new system, we may also purchase tickets for friends, just as is possible with the Chinese version, but only after verification of their ID. The purchase of tickets for accompanied minors is also possible.
此外，有用的常见问题解答部分告诉我们，使用新系统，我们还可以为朋友购买门票，就像中文版本一样，但前提是验证他们的身份。也可以为陪同的未成年人购买门票。
While both the 12306 website and APP are operating the new English version, at present, only foreign passport holders are able to use the system.
虽然12306网站和APP都运行新的英文版，但目前只有外国护照持有者可以使用该系统。
Registration is a simple and familiar procedure; name, date of birth, passport information etc.
注册是一个简单且熟悉的过程；姓名、出生日期、护照信息等
And email, which is where the problems begin.
还有电子邮件，这就是问题开始的地方。
The account registration email never arrived. Neither did it go to our junk email. Neither did toggling our VPN make a difference. Or restarting our phone. Or waiting all day.
帐户注册电子邮件从未到达。它也没有进入我们的垃圾邮件。切换我们的 VPN 也没有产生任何影响。或者重新启动我们的手机。或者整天等待。
Perhaps our network was experiencing difficulties. Perhaps we inadvertently snuck a capital letter into our email address. Or perhaps the registration email went to that mysterious, possibly fictional, junk within junk email box; the one that no one can ever access.
也许我们的网络遇到了困难。也许我们无意中在电子邮件地址中添加了一个大写字母。或者，注册电子邮件可能被发送到垃圾邮件箱中那个神秘的、可能是虚构的垃圾邮件；没有人可以访问的一个。
But then, email has always been a problematic issue in China, to the extent that we wonder why they couldn’t have just used our mobile number instead.
但是，电子邮件在中国一直是一个问题，以至于我们想知道为什么他们不能直接使用我们的手机号码。
To what will now be our endless frustration, attempts to reregister are met with the greeting that the ID is in use. Oh well, let’s just wait until our new passport…
令我们沮丧的是，尝试重新注册时却收到 ID 已被使用的问候。哦，好吧，让我们等到我们的新护照……
So while a lot of work has undoubtedly been done to make the update a reality (and with our profuse thanks), clearly IT still has some work to do.
因此，尽管为了使更新成为现实无疑已经做了很多工作（并致以我们的衷心感谢），但显然 IT 部门仍然有一些工作要做。
