China has the largest high-speed rail network in the world and a dense domestic flight network on top of it, which means the real question is rarely how to book a flight - it is whether you should be on a plane at all. For a lot of the routes visitors actually take from Beijing, the train is faster door to door and far less fragile. For the long ones, flying is the only sane option. Here is the decision rule, then the mechanics of booking and flying with a foreign passport.
Kurz & Knapp
Under 1,200 km
High-speed train usually wins
PEK vs PKX
80 km apart - check your route
Checked Bag
20 kg included on full-service fares
Power Bank
Carry-on only, under 100Wh
Fly or Train? The 1,200 Kilometer Rule
As a rough rule, if the journey is under about 1,200 kilometers and the train takes under six hours, take the train. Beijing to Shanghai is the classic case: 4 hours 18 minutes city center to city center on a G-train, versus a 2 hour 15 minute flight plus roughly three hours of airport overhead, plus two expensive taxi rides to airports on the outskirts. The train wins on total time and on reliability. Beijing to Xi'an is 4.5 hours by rail and the flight saves almost nothing once you count transfers. Where flying clearly wins: Beijing to Urumqi, Lhasa, Kunming, Sanya, Haikou, and most of Sichuan and Yunnan beyond Chengdu, all of which are 7.5 hours or more by rail, or not served by high-speed trains at all. Beijing to Chengdu is the borderline case - about 7.5 hours by train, 3 hours by air, so it depends on whether you value the window seat or the sleep.
How to Book With a Passport
Three routes, in order of how much English you have to survive. Trip.com is the easiest: full English interface, foreign cards accepted, passport details stored once, and a service fee of 15 to 30 RMB per ticket that is worth paying the first time. Airline apps and WeChat mini programs for Air China, China Eastern and China Southern are cheaper and occasionally have inventory the aggregators do not, but they are Chinese-first and often want a Chinese payment method. Alipay has a flight booking mini program that sits in between and works with a linked international card. Whichever you use, your passport is your ticket - there is nothing to print and nothing to collect, you check in with the passport at the counter. The detail that ruins bookings: the name must match your passport exactly, surname and given name in the right fields, and if your passport has a middle name that you left off the booking, check-in staff can and do refuse it.
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Which Beijing Airport Serves Your Route
Beijing has two airports and they are 80 kilometers apart, which is about 90 minutes and 200 to 300 RMB in a car. PEK, Beijing Capital, is the Air China hub and carries most domestic routes plus a large share of international ones, with Terminal 3 doing the heavy lifting. PKX, Beijing Daxing, opened in 2019 and took China Southern and China Eastern with it, along with most new long-haul routes. The practical consequence: China Southern and China Eastern domestic flights mostly leave from PKX, Air China and its partners from PEK, and a return trip booked carelessly can arrive at one and depart from the other. Check both airports before you book a hotel, and if you are connecting, build in the transfer time rather than assuming a short hop.
At the Airport: The Domestic Timeline
Arrive 90 minutes before departure for a domestic flight, 120 minutes at PKX because the terminal is enormous. Check-in closes 45 minutes before departure on most carriers, and the gate closes 20 minutes before. You will need your passport at three points: the check-in counter or self-service bag drop, the security ID check, and the boarding gate, where they scan the passport and match your face. Security in China is thorough and specifically obsessed with power banks: anything under 100Wh (most phones and laptops) is fine, 100 to 160Wh needs airline approval at check-in, above 160Wh is banned outright, and every power bank must be in your carry-on and never in checked baggage. Liquids follow the usual 100 milliliter carry-on rule, and lighters and matches are confiscated at security even though they are legal to carry in some other countries.
Baggage: What Is Actually Included
On full-service carriers - Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan - a standard economy fare includes 20 kilograms of checked baggage and 5 to 7 kilograms of carry-on, which is more generous than most Western equivalents. On the low-cost carriers, mainly Spring Airlines and 9 Air, the base fare includes a small cabin bag and nothing else, and a checked bag adds 100 to 250 RMB depending on weight and when you buy it. If you are price-comparing a 400 RMB Spring fare against a 700 RMB Air China fare, add the bag fee before deciding. The other thing worth knowing: any lithium battery, including the spare power bank in your daypack, has to be in the cabin, and airport staff will ask you to open the bag if the X-ray shows a suspicious shape.
Delays, Cancellations and Refunds
July and August thunderstorms and December and January fog at PEK are the two seasonal causes of serious disruption, and on-time performance drops noticeably in both windows. When a delay is the airline's responsibility, Chinese rules require meals and, for long delays, hotel accommodation. Cash compensation exists on paper and is rarely paid in practice, so do not plan around it. If the airline cancels, you are entitled to a full refund or a rebooking, and Trip.com is genuinely easier to deal with in English than an airline hotline at 23:00. If you booked direct with a Chinese airline app, the in-app refund flow is where your money is; do not leave the airport without submitting it. Travel insurance with trip interruption cover is cheap and pays for exactly this scenario, which is why it is on our China packing checklist rather than in a footnote.
Six Booking Mistakes Foreigners Make
One: leaving the middle name off the booking, then being refused at check-in. Two: a passport with less than six months of validity, which some airlines will not board for an international connection. Three: booking the 06:30 departure when the first subway train does not reach the airport until after 06:00. Four: assuming a flight listed as direct does not stop - a technical stop with the same flight number is common on western routes. Five: buying the cheapest low-cost fare and then discovering the checked bag costs more than the fare difference to a full-service carrier. Six: flying into PKX and out of PEK on the same trip without noticing, which turns a relaxed final morning into a 90 minute cross-city sprint.
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