Time to grab your train tickets for National Day. But to go or not to go is the question. Officially, yeah, do what you want. Unofficially, hmmm. Yet, there seem to be plenty train tickets available for those willing to take the risk.
The official line in Chinese is “自愿、免费、即采即走、不限制流动”. In English, we might come up with something like, “Go where you want, go when you want. No one is going to stop you; there are no restrictions on mobility.”
官方中文台词是“自愿、免费、即采即走、不限制流动”。在英语中，我们可能会想出这样的话：“去你想去的地方，去你想去的时间。没有人会阻止你；行动不受限制。”
Sounds nice, but a bit of a mouthful. The between-the-lines meaning of course is, “We want you to travel anywhere you want, we want to maintain ‘epidemic prevention and control’ (sick of that phrase now), but we also want to promote the tourism industry”.
听起来不错，但有点拗口。言外之意当然是“我们想让你去任何你想去的地方，我们要保持‘疫情防控’（现在厌倦了这个词），但我们也想促进旅游业”。
Trouble is there ain’t three sides to every coin. And the bookings are hardly rolling in.
问题是硬币并不都有三个面。而且预订量几乎没有增加。
With train tickets having gone on sale for the 2022 National Day holiday in the last few days, there is far from the usual “qiangpiao” (抢票) or “scramble for tickets”.
连日来，2022年国庆假期火车票开始发售，与往常的“抢票”现象相去甚远。
As an example, The Nanjinger was this afternoon easily able to find available a business class ticket (what else?) for travel between Nanjing South Railway Station and Xiamen.
举个例子，今天下午，《南京人》很容易找到一张南京南站到厦门之间的商务舱机票（还有什么？）。
That would be the G1675, departing at 13:28 on 30 September, arriving 20:53. Nine tickets in business class available (like, almost the entire coach) and another nine in first class. Nothing in second, but there are on trains earlier in the day.
那是 G1675，9 月 30 日 13:28 出发，20:53 到达。提供九张商务舱机票（几乎相当于整个经济舱），还有九张头等舱机票。第二天没有，但当天早些时候有火车。
That all said, The Paper reports that Wu Liangyou, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Disease Control at the National Health Commission, has advocated that the masses spend National Day locally.
尽管如此，澎湃新闻报道称，国家卫健委疾控局副局长吴良友已倡导群众就地过国庆。
He would, though. But what happens if you fancy a trip, buy a ticket and then change you mind?
不过他会的。但是，如果您喜欢旅行并购买了机票，然后又改变主意了，会发生什么情况呢？
In terms of ticket refunds, the China Railway platform that is 12306 has said that no refund fee will be charged for tickets bought 8 days or more before departure. Tickets cancelled within 2 and 7 days of departure shall be penalised 5 percent of the ticket price. Refunds on tickets cancelled within 24 to 48 hours of travel shall be hit with a 10 percent fee.
在退票方面，中国铁路12306平台表示，出发前8天及以上购买的车票不收取退票费。出发前 2 天内和 7 天内取消机票，将收取票价 5% 的罚款。旅行 24 至 48 小时内取消的机票退款将收取 10% 的费用。
If you are still intent on travelling, just remember that a 48-hour NAT is going to be a requirement, even just to get in the train station or airport.
如果您仍打算旅行，请记住，即使只是进入火车站或机场，也需要 48 小时 NAT。
