Today, Taobao Travel quietly launched a train ticket agency service, with the last option on the homepage's booking panel being "train tickets." Staff from Taobao Travel revealed that the train ticket resale business would undergo a one-month trial run. "We do not charge any handling fees, and the entire ticket purchasing process, as well as subsequent ticket collection and boarding, is basically the same as the model used by the 12306 website." When placing an order for train tickets through Taobao Travel, the entire ordering and ticket issuance process is completed by its partner, Gantieche.com.
In response to this, relevant personnel from China Railway Corporation stated in an interview with journalists that www.12306.cn is the sole official website of the China Railway Customer Service Center, and up to now, no other websites have been authorized to provide similar services.
Interestingly, the "train tickets" option has already disappeared from the left-side panel of the Taobao Travel homepage, but train tickets can still be ordered through their customer service hotline.
With the service taken offline just half a day after its launch, it seems Taobao still has some work to do.