This station is different from the numerous new and standard stations in China. The latter are just comfortable and huge, but all look "the same person". And this one has its own characteristics, and just the gorgeous architecture of its era.
For traveling laowai with e-tickets, this is good news. Scanners have finally learned how to read our passports. But if you are not sure, it is better to look for the attendant at the entrance in the old-fashioned way and stick the document to him ;)
A good old railway station, from where all classes of trains depart, is very clean and large. Safety is at a height, there are many cafes where you can have a delicious meal and take water and sweets with you
Cleanly neat, without a large crowd of people. There is a cashier who speaks English. I managed to buy tickets without any problems. There is a luggage storage nearby.
First of all, please note that this is Beijing CENTRAL Station. Besides him, there is also the SOUTH station. Navigation around the station is very simple. No complicated passages or adjacent halls. The main thing is to find the entrance, and then everything is very simple :) There are signs in English everywhere. The exit and entrance to the subway are strictly separated. There is an exit on the east side of the square, and an entrance on the west. Ticket offices to the right of the main building. The Chinese practically do not appear there at all. Tickets are purchased online in connection with the ID. The entrance to the station is also by ID. Therefore, even on Chinese New Year, the ticket offices are free. The only drawback is that there is only one cashier for all cash desks with a cashier who understands English. Therefore, all 5 visitors of the cash register crowded into this particular box office. An attempt to buy a ticket at a nearby ticket office ended very quickly on the very first question that the cashier tried to ask me in Chinese. Tickets can potentially be purchased here at the cash registers. You can pay via Alipay or by bank card (which is very rare in China). You are not given a ticket at the ticket office or in the machine. They only give you a check. Your passport will be the ticket. He will be checked at the entrance to the station. Accordingly, if there is no ticket, then you will not enter the station building either.
Come in advance, you can queue at the ticket office for a very long time just to have your ticket printed out. For some reason, cashiers communicate with everyone who approaches them for an infinitely long time, they can spend half an hour on one person! If you want to buy something on an electric train, you can't pay with a card or cash, only WeChat, to which a Chinese bank card must be connected.
This is the smallest of the stations, there is a large queue at the entrance. For foreigners, there is a separate counter on the left for passport scanning. They won't let you into other racks
After the opening of the Chinese border, I found updates at the station: the ticket hall was restored, an additional hall on the street, there were a lot of ticket vending machines, as a result - there is no terrible queue at the ticket hall! The access system is now fully electronic, and the entrance to the station and the exits to the platform are now through turnstiles. It's enough for the Chinese to scan their plastic passport and go! With a foreign passport, you need to go through the attendant.
Undoubtedly, everything has become faster to work! well, it became more civil)