Landing capability

Buying a long-distance coach ticket in China on a passport, and what the gate checks before you board

In short

Which document do I need to buy a coach ticket in China?

A passport, and it is named at national level rather than left to the station. Annex 9 to the Provisions on the Administration of Road Passenger Transport and Coach Stations — 交通运输部令2023年第18号 — lists the documents accepted for real-name coach ticketing and carries 护照 on both of its lists: the counter list and the list for online, telephone and terminal sales. Article 38 requires the original document when you buy, or when you collect a ticket bought remotely. Before boarding, Article 50 has the station check the identity on the ticket, the passenger and the original document against each other — the rule abbreviates this as 票、人、证.

Back to the transport hub

Applies to

Scheduled coach services crossing a provincial boundary (class one) or crossing a prefecture boundary inside one province (class two). Article 38 leaves other routes to each province's transport authority, and no provincial list was opened for this page.

Check before you rely on it

Two levels of document list exist and they are not the same list. Annex 9 is a national ministry annex and names only 护照 and 外国人永久居留身份证 for foreign passengers. Beijing's own municipal measures, covering that city's interprovincial services, name nine documents including the PRC travel document and a police loss-of-passport certificate. Neither document explains the difference, so this page sets them side by side and ranks neither.

Information checked: October 22, 2026

This page covers the document and the gate. What the scanner will take off you — the alcohol ceiling, the power-bank count, the knives that travel in the hold — is a different document, published by two ministries together, and it has its own page.

Transport hub What the coach gate takes off you

The national rule

Which coach services carry the document requirement, and who said so

Each line links the official page and the day we read it. Sources read 2026-10-22.

One ministry rule sets the counter procedure, and it is current

The procedure comes from 《道路旅客运输及客运站管理规定》, issued as 交通运输部令2023年第18号 and marked 『现行有效』 on the ministry's own disclosure page. Article 108 states 『本规定自2020年9月1日起施行。』 — published 2020, amended in 2022 and again in 2023, which is why the decree year reads 2023. Article 1 names 《中华人民共和国道路运输条例》 as the regulation it is made under. It is a national rule, not a station notice.

Official source: Ministry of Transport disclosure site (xxgk.mot.gov.cn), 主题分类：部颁规章; 公文类型：部令; 机构分类：法制司 — 《道路旅客运输及客运站管理规定》— Provisions on the Administration of Road Passenger Transport and Coach Stations, 交通运输部令2023年第18号, 现行有效 (source 2023-12-08; read October 22, 2026)

Real-name ticketing is pinned to class one and class two routes only

Article 38 reads 『一类、二类客运班线的经营者或者其委托的售票单位、配客站点，应当实行实名售票和实名查验（以下统称实名制管理），免票儿童除外。』 and then hands the rest down a level: 『其他客运班线及客运站实行实名制管理的范围，由省级人民政府交通运输主管部门确定。』 Article 8 defines the classes by the boundary a route crosses — 『一类客运班线：跨省级行政区域（毗邻县之间除外）的客运班线。』 and 『二类客运班线：在省级行政区域内，跨设区的市级行政区域（毗邻县之间除外）的客运班线。』 So a coach crossing a provincial line, or crossing a prefecture line inside one province, is covered by the national rule. County-level and neighbouring-county services are left to each province, and no provincial list was opened for this page.

What the rule covers is the scheduled service, not a charter or a sightseeing coach

Article 3 separates three kinds of road passenger business and defines the scheduled one as 『班车客运是指客车在城乡道路上按照固定的线路、时间、站点、班次运行的一种客运方式。』 Charter work (包车客运) and sightseeing work (旅游客运) are defined separately in the same article and are not what this page describes. Article 105 draws the other boundary explicitly: 『出租汽车客运、城市公共汽车客运管理根据国家有关规定执行。』 — taxis and city buses are outside this rule entirely.

Booking online does not remove the document at the counter

Article 38's second paragraph: 『实行实名制管理的，购票人购票时应当提供有效身份证件原件（有效身份证件类别见附件9），并由售票人在客票上记载旅客的身份信息。通过网络、电话等方式实名购票的，购票人应当提供有效的身份证件信息，并在取票时提供有效身份证件原件。』 Buying remotely means supplying the document details; collecting the ticket means producing the document itself.

A lost ticket is reissued free, once your identity has been checked

Article 38's third paragraph: 『旅客遗失客票的，经核实其身份信息后，售票人应当免费为其补办客票。』 That is the only thing either ministry document opened for this page says about a ticket going wrong — it is a reissue, not a repurchase. Refund fees, missed departures and changes of service appear in neither document.

Annex 9, as published

The national list of accepted documents, split by where you buy

Article 38 does not print the documents; it points at 附件9《实名制有效身份证件类别》, published with the rule as the first file in its attachment bundle. The annex splits into two lists by sales channel, and a passport is on both.

At a counter — 『一、人工售票有效身份证件类型』

中华人民共和国居民身份证，中华人民共和国临时居民身份证，港澳台居民居住证，港澳居民来往内地通行证，台湾居民来往大陆通行证，护照，外国人永久居留身份证，中国人民解放军、中国人民武装警察部队制发的军官证、警官证、文职干部证、义务兵证、士官证、文职人员证，国家综合性消防救援队伍干部证、消防员证，海员证，公安部门出具的临时乘车身份证明。

The longer of the two lists. 『护照』 appears with no qualifier of any kind — the annex does not say Chinese passport or foreign passport. 『公安部门出具的临时乘车身份证明』 appears on this list only.

Online, by phone or at a terminal — 『二、网络、电话、终端等方式售票有效身份证件类型』

中华人民共和国居民身份证、港澳台居民居住证、港澳居民来往内地通行证、台湾居民来往大陆通行证、护照、外国人永久居留身份证。

Six entries. Compared with the counter list it drops the temporary resident ID card, every military and armed-police document, the fire-and-rescue documents, the seafarer's book and the police-issued temporary travel identity certificate. The annex does not say why.

For a foreign visitor the annex offers exactly two entries, 护照 and 外国人永久居留身份证, and offers them on both lists. It does not carry the PRC travel document, a residence certificate for foreigners, a diplomatic or consular card, or a seafarer's book on the online list — several of those appear only in the Beijing measures further down.

Official source: Ministry of Transport disclosure site (xxgk.mot.gov.cn), attached to the rule's own page as 『附件下载：附件1-14.doc』 — 《道路旅客运输及客运站管理规定》附件9《实名制有效身份证件类别》— Annex 9, the two lists of ID documents accepted for real-name coach ticketing (source 2023-12-08; read October 22, 2026)

At the gate

Ticket, person, document — and what happens when one of the three does not match

The rule names the check itself, states the four situations in which a station may not let you board, and sets the fine that explains why the counter will not improvise.

The check has a name in the rule itself: ticket, person, document

Article 50's second paragraph: 『实行实名制管理的客运班线及客运站，旅客还应当持有本人有效身份证件原件，配合工作人员查验。旅客乘车前，客运站经营者应当对客票记载的身份信息与旅客及其有效身份证件原件（以下简称票、人、证）进行一致性核对并记录有关信息。』『票、人、证』 is the rule's own shorthand. Three things have to agree: the identity printed on the ticket, the person standing there, and the original document.

Four situations in which the station may not let you board

Article 50's third paragraph: 『对旅客拒不配合行李物品安全检查或者坚持携带违禁物品、乘坐实名制管理的客运班线拒不提供本人有效身份证件原件或者票、人、证不一致的，班车客运经营者和客运站经营者不得允许其乘车。』 Refusing the baggage check, insisting on carrying a banned item, not producing the original document, or a mismatch between ticket, person and document — any one of them and the wording is 『不得允许其乘车』. Article 50's first paragraph sets the passenger's own duties, including 『不得携带违禁物品乘车』.

Why the counter will not wave it through: the fine lands on the station

Article 98: 『一类、二类客运班线的经营者或者其委托的售票单位、客运站经营者未按照规定对旅客身份进行查验，或者对身份不明、拒绝提供身份信息的旅客提供服务的，由交通运输主管部门处10万元以上50万元以下的罚款，并对其直接负责的主管人员和其他直接责任人员处10万元以下的罚款』, rising to suspension of the business and revocation of the licence where the consequences are serious. The clerk refusing a passenger without a document is acting against a penalty of 10万元 at the floor and 50万元 at the ceiling.

Children who travel free are the one carve-out, and the rule caps them

Article 38 excludes 『免票儿童』 from real-name management. Article 40 is the only place the rule permits more people aboard than the certified capacity: 『严禁营运客车超载运行，在载客人数已满的情况下，允许再搭乘不超过核定载客人数10%的免票儿童。』 So a fare-free child is not registered by name, and is also the only passenger the rule lets exceed the seat count.

What the station keeps, and for how long

Article 52: 『对旅客身份信息及乘车信息自采集之日起保存期限不得少于1年，涉及视频图像信息的，自采集之日起保存期限不得少于90日。』 The same article requires the operator to keep that data confidential except where the public security authority asks for it. Article 51 obliges operators running real-name services to provide the equipment and to train the staff who use it; where a scheduled route is sold through an online platform, Article 67 adds that the platform must keep the data it collects for 『不少于3年』.

Beijing interprovincial services, step by step

Counter to coach door, in the order the measures set it out

1.Buy at a station counter, a city ticket agency, an off-site pick-up point, or online — Article 5. With a passport the counter clerk enters the details by hand, and Article 11 requires them to prompt you to check the printed ticket there and then.
2.Hold the document and the ticket for that departure. Article 15: 『旅客须持有效身份证件和当期车票接受验票和安检，经确认票面信息与身份信息相符且安检无异常后，方可进入封闭候车区。』
3.Pass the gate at the entrance of the waiting area. Article 14 requires stations to run a separate, enclosed waiting area with both a ticket-reading display and 『X光安检设备』 at its entrance, staffed for ticket checking and screening; a station without the space for one must put up simple barriers instead, and a failed reader is replaced by a manual check.
4.If you step out of the enclosed waiting area, you go through both again. Article 16: 『旅客临时离开封闭候车区的，返回时须重新验票和安检。』
5.A fare concession is shown twice. Article 10 asks for the concession document when buying; Article 15's second paragraph asks for it again at the ticket check.
6.Board at the departure gate. Article 17 has staff check tickets in turn at the boarding exit and prompt passengers to confirm the date, service number and final stop themselves before stepping on.

Official source: Beijing municipal government portal (www.beijing.gov.cn), 政策文件; 发文机构：北京市交通委员会运输管理局 — 《北京市省际道路客运实名制售票验票管理办法（试行）》— Beijing municipal measures on real-name ticketing and gate checks for interprovincial coaches, 京交运发〔2013〕526号, 有效性：是 (source 2013-12-09; read October 22, 2026)

Read the scope before you use it

Why the Beijing document is quoted, and how far it reaches

It is the only document opened for this page that names a foreign visitor's documents one by one, and the only one with a route for a passenger carrying none. It is also municipal.

Beijing stations, interprovincial services. Article 2 limits it to the city's interprovincial coach stations, their off-site pick-up points and ticket agencies inside the city. Nothing in it speaks for another city.
Separate chain of authority, not a local implementation. Article 1 cites the Regulations on Road Transport and Beijing's own road transport regulations. It was written in 2013, seven years before the ministry rule, and does not derive from it.
Its list is wider for foreign passengers. Nine named documents against the annex's two. Neither document explains the gap, and this page does not decide it.

Beijing, as published

The municipal measures, clause by clause

Document lists, the online channel, manual entry for a passport, children's height lines, what to do with no document at all, and where a refund is processed.

What this document is, and the ground it covers

《北京市省际道路客运实名制售票验票管理办法（试行）》, 京交运发〔2013〕526号, in force 2014-01-01 and shown on the portal as 『[有效性] 是』 with no repeal date. 『（试行）』 is part of its title. Article 2 limits it to 『本市各省际客运场站及其站外延伸配载站点、市内各客票代售服务点的售票验票管理服务』 — Beijing's interprovincial coach stations, their off-site pick-up points, and ticket agencies inside the city. Article 1 cites 《中华人民共和国道路运输条例》 and 《北京市道路运输条例》, not the 2020 ministry rule, so the two documents sit on separate chains rather than one above the other.

Beijing names nine documents for foreign passengers — more than the national annex

Article 4(4): 『外国人持有的合法有效的护照、外国人居留证、外国人出入境证、外交官证、领事馆证、海员证；外交部开具的外国人身份证明、地方公安机关出入境管理部门开具的护照报失证明、中华人民共和国旅行证。』 Two of those are routes for a passenger whose passport is gone: the loss-of-passport certificate issued by the local public security exit-entry administration, and the PRC travel document. None of the five beyond passport and permanent-residence card appears in national Annex 9. This is a municipal list for Beijing interprovincial services; it is not a national list, and neither document says which prevails.

A document is shown twice: when you buy and when you board

Article 3: 『旅客在本市各省际客运场站及其站外延伸配载站点、市内各客票代售服务点（以下分别简称客运场站、配载站点、代售点）购票和乘车时，应出示有效的身份证件；客运场站、配载站点、代售点须登记、验证并留存旅客实名信息。』 Article 6 adds one ticket per document per departure: 『在同一乘车班次或同一乘车时间段内，一张有效身份证件限购一张车票。』

A passport is typed in by hand, and you are asked to check it on the spot

Article 11 requires every counter, pick-up point and agency to have a second-generation resident ID card reader meeting 《台式居民身份证阅读器通用技术要求》（GA450-2003）, connected to the ticketing system. For anything that reader cannot read: 『旅客持无法机读的有效身份证件购票时，售票人员须将有关信息手工录入系统，交付车票时应提示旅客当场核对，核对有误时应重新制票出票。』 A foreign passport falls in that class — manual entry, and the clerk is required to prompt you to check the ticket before you leave the window. This is Beijing's wording; neither the national rule nor Annex 9 says anything about card readers.

Buying online in Beijing narrows the list again

Article 5 lists the channels, and its fourth: 『持有第二代居民身份证、护照、港澳居民来往内地通行证、台湾居民来往大陆通行证的旅客，还可以登陆本市省际客运信息网（网址：e2go.com.cn），以网上支付方式预购可供选择的班线车票，临行时凭相应证件到客运场站取票乘车。』 A passport is one of the four accepted there. Article 12 requires stations to set up a dedicated collection window for online purchases, with self-service machines at first-class stations as well. This is the Beijing municipal site named in the measures; no ticketing platform was opened for this page.

No document at all: the station police room, and a certificate with three uses

Article 9: 『无法提供有效身份证件的旅客，确需应急购票乘车的，可以到客运场站警务室说明缘由、自报身份，经警务人员核实、登记后办理《旅客购票乘车临时证明》（式样见附件），持该证明购票乘车。』 It is issued by the police room inside the station, and its scope is narrow: 『由客运场站警务室出具的《旅客购票乘车临时证明》，限定用于旅客购票、退票、检票，其它场合使用无效。』 Buying, refunding, and ticket inspection — nothing else. The form referred to as 『（式样见附件）』 is not embedded in the page and was not obtained.

Children: two height lines, and one child who needs no document

Article 7: 『身高120～150cm的儿童应购买儿童票，身高超过150cm的儿童须购买全价票。』 and 『成人旅客持一张全票可以免费随带1名身高不足120cm且不占座位的儿童；随带儿童超过1名时，应按超过的人数购买儿童票。随带儿童可以不出示身份证件，成人旅客应将携带儿童的姓名和身份信息告知售票员。』 The accompanied child shows nothing, but the adult must give the clerk the child's name and identity details. Article 15 repeats it at the gate: 『持非全价车票随成人旅客同行的儿童，可以不出示身份证件。』

Someone else can buy your ticket, on a copy of your document

Article 8: 『旅客可以委托他人代购车票，但受托人须持乘车人的有效身份证件（或复印件）购票。』 A photocopy is accepted in this one situation and nowhere else in the document — travelling on it is not what the article allows.

Refunds: which window, and what you bring

Article 13: 『旅客退票时应持购票时使用的有效证件，到乘车客运场站退票窗口办理退票手续；票务人员核对车票和证件信息，票、证信息一致的方予办理退票手续。以网上支付方式预购车票的退票旅客，已取票的应在客运场站退票窗口退票，未取票的可在网上退票。』 Where to go and what to bring, and nothing more: no document opened for this page gives a refund fee, a deadline, or any rule for a missed departure.

In short

The questions these two documents actually answer

The passport, the route classes, the three-way check, a lost passport, the card reader, and the one refund procedure on record.

Can a foreign visitor buy a long-distance coach ticket in China with a passport?

Yes, and it is named at national level. Annex 9 to 《道路旅客运输及客运站管理规定》 lists the documents accepted for real-name coach ticketing and carries 『护照』 on both of its lists — the counter list and the list for online, telephone and terminal sales — along with 『外国人永久居留身份证』. The annex attaches no qualifier to 『护照』. What it does not do is describe how any particular station or platform handles it; no ticketing platform page was opened for this page.

Do all Chinese coach stations check ID?

No — the national requirement is drawn by route class, not by station. Article 38 imposes real-name ticketing and checking on class one routes (crossing a provincial boundary) and class two routes (crossing a prefecture boundary within one province), and leaves other routes to each province's transport authority. So a cross-province or cross-prefecture coach is covered by the ministry rule; whether a county-level or neighbouring-county service is covered depends on a provincial decision, and no provincial list was opened for this page.

What is checked before boarding?

Three things against each other, which the rule itself abbreviates as 『票、人、证』: the identity recorded on the ticket, the passenger, and the original document. Article 50 requires the station operator to confirm they match and to record the information. If you will not cooperate with the baggage check, insist on carrying a banned item, cannot produce the original document, or the three do not match, the same article says the operator 『不得允许其乘车』.

What if my passport has been lost or stolen?

Two documents named for that case appear in Beijing's municipal measures, not in the national annex: 『地方公安机关出入境管理部门开具的护照报失证明』 and 『中华人民共和国旅行证』. Beijing also has a fallback for a passenger with no document at all — Article 9 sends you to the station's police room to state your case and self-report your identity, after which a 《旅客购票乘车临时证明》 is issued, valid for buying, refunding and ticket inspection only. Both of these are Beijing interprovincial-service rules; nothing equivalent was found at national level.

Will the machine read my passport?

Beijing's Article 11 requires card readers built for the second-generation resident ID card, to the GA450-2003 standard, and then provides for everything they cannot read: the clerk enters the details manually and must prompt you to check the ticket on the spot. A foreign passport falls in that class. This is Beijing's wording — the national rule and Annex 9 say nothing at all about readers — and no document opened here says how long manual entry takes.

Is a coach ticket refundable?

Only one procedure was found on any page opened for this page, and it is Beijing's Article 13: bring the document you bought with, go to the refund window at the station you were travelling from, and the refund is processed once ticket and document agree; an online purchase already collected is refunded at that window, and one not yet collected can be refunded online. No document opened here states a refund fee, a cut-off time, or what happens if you miss your coach, so this page states none.

Could not confirm

What this page will not assert

Mostly the figures travel forums repeat as standard: a free baggage allowance, a nationwide ID rule, and an app that sells to a passport. None of them was on a page we opened.

That every Chinese coach station requires ID, or that short services do not. Article 38 covers class one and class two routes and hands the rest to provincial transport authorities; no provincial list was opened in this pass, so neither generalisation is published here.
Any free baggage weight or piece allowance. The rule's only baggage articles are 41 (registration, inspection or unsealed examination of goods consigned to the hold, plus the hold's internal dimensions and the vehicle's mass balance) and 45 (a segregated stacking area where there is no underfloor hold). Neither sets a weight or a number of pieces, and the items catalogue sets none either. The widely quoted 10 kg figure has no ministry source in this pass and does not appear on this site.
That a named app or website sells coach tickets to a foreign passport. Annex 9's second list carries 『护照』 for online, telephone and terminal sales, but no ticketing platform page was opened. The one web address on this page, 『e2go.com.cn』, is quoted from Beijing's Article 5(4) as the municipal interprovincial coach information site.
Which of the two ID lists prevails where they differ. Annex 9 is a ministry-rule annex applying nationally; Beijing's Article 4 is a municipal measure covering that city's interprovincial services, and its list of documents for foreign passengers is wider. Neither document explains the difference, so this page sets them side by side and ranks neither.
Whether the Beijing measures have been amended since 2013. The portal copy read for this page carries 京交运发〔2013〕526号, 成文日期 2013-12-09, 实施日期 2014-01-01, an empty repeal field and 『[有效性] 是』, and no revision note. No separate search of the Beijing transport commission's site was made for later amending documents.
The form of the 《旅客购票乘车临时证明》. Beijing's Article 9 says 『式样见附件』; that annex is not embedded in the page and was not obtained.
Anything about cross-border coach services. Article 106 sends international road passenger transport to a separate ministry rule, 《国际道路运输管理规定》, which was not opened. This page covers domestic scheduled services only.
What any individual station does in practice. Both documents set operator duties. No station's opening hours, queueing arrangements, or availability of a manual-entry window was checked in this pass, so no station is described.
Whether an accepted document has to be inside its validity period beyond what the text says. Article 38 says 『有效身份证件原件』 and Annex 9 goes no further; Beijing's Article 4 says 『合法有效的』 for several entries. Neither sets out any further condition, and none is invented here.

What the coach gate takes off you

The sibling page: the two-ministry catalogue behind every coach security check, with its three lists and countable ceilings.

Open page

The railway security gate

A different catalogue by different bodies, with different numbers. Clearing a coach station says nothing about a railway station.

Open page

Paying for buses, metro and more on one card

The interoperable transit card whose release notes name intercity coaches among the modes it covers — card acceptance, not a ticketing rule.

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Buying a long-distance coach ticket in China on a passport, and what the gate checks before you board

Which document do I need to buy a coach ticket in China?

Which coach services carry the document requirement, and who said so

One ministry rule sets the counter procedure, and it is current

Real-name ticketing is pinned to class one and class two routes only

What the rule covers is the scheduled service, not a charter or a sightseeing coach

Booking online does not remove the document at the counter

A lost ticket is reissued free, once your identity has been checked

The national list of accepted documents, split by where you buy

At a counter — 『一、人工售票有效身份证件类型』

Online, by phone or at a terminal — 『二、网络、电话、终端等方式售票有效身份证件类型』

Ticket, person, document — and what happens when one of the three does not match

The check has a name in the rule itself: ticket, person, document

Four situations in which the station may not let you board

Why the counter will not wave it through: the fine lands on the station

Children who travel free are the one carve-out, and the rule caps them

What the station keeps, and for how long

Counter to coach door, in the order the measures set it out

Why the Beijing document is quoted, and how far it reaches

The municipal measures, clause by clause

What this document is, and the ground it covers

Beijing names nine documents for foreign passengers — more than the national annex

A document is shown twice: when you buy and when you board

A passport is typed in by hand, and you are asked to check it on the spot

Buying online in Beijing narrows the list again

No document at all: the station police room, and a certificate with three uses

Children: two height lines, and one child who needs no document

Someone else can buy your ticket, on a copy of your document

Refunds: which window, and what you bring

The questions these two documents actually answer

Can a foreign visitor buy a long-distance coach ticket in China with a passport?

Do all Chinese coach stations check ID?

What is checked before boarding?

What if my passport has been lost or stolen?

Will the machine read my passport?

Is a coach ticket refundable?

What this page will not assert

What the coach gate takes off you

The railway security gate

Paying for buses, metro and more on one card

Leave each page knowing what to do next.

I need the next step

I know the problem

I am ready to choose