China's railway does not weigh your suitcase at the gate, and there is no checked-bag fee the way airlines charge one. What it does have is a hard size ceiling, a list of items it will confiscate, and a security lane a foreign passport cannot pass alone. Most trouble at a Chinese station comes from those three points. Here is the operational version as of November 2026, plus the services that let you stop carrying the bag at all.
The allowance: 20 kg each, 130 cm on high-speed trains
Each adult may carry 20 kg free of charge, each child 10 kg, diplomatic-passport holders 35 kg, with a maximum of 20 kg per piece.
- High-speed and EMU trains (G, D, C): length plus width plus height must not exceed 130 cm, and rod-shaped items are also capped at 130 cm.
- Conventional trains (Z, T, K): 160 cm per piece, rod-shaped items up to 200 cm.
Folding wheelchairs and infant strollers travel free and sit outside the allowance. Go over and the excess is charged as baggage freight at the station, with an oversize item that cannot be split charged on its full weight. The revised national regulations took effect on 1 June 2026 with 28 adjustments, tightening the hand-luggage wording and pressing stations to widen security and open more checked-baggage counters. For children and wheelchair users, see our family and accessibility guide.
The 130 cm line, translated into suitcase sizes
| Case | Approximate L+W+H | Verdict on a G or D train |
|---|---|---|
| 20 inch cabin | 118 cm | Fine |
| 24 inch | 133 cm | At the line, usually accepted |
| 26 inch | 144 cm | Over |
| 28 inch | 159 cm | Over, and visible |
Measure the case yourself, wheels and handle included. Enforcement is uneven: a 28-inch case normally rides, because staff are managing crowds rather than tape measures. But on a full departure, or when the racks at the car ends are already jammed, a conductor can require you to check it or charge the excess. For a multi-city rail trip, a 24-inch case plus a soft bag is the safe combination.
Security: passport lane first, then the X-ray
Chinese nationals tap a resident ID at a face-recognition gate, but those gates cannot read a foreign passport. Look for the staffed lane at the far left or right, hand over the passport, and the officer types the number to pull up your booking. There is no paper ticket; the passport is the ticket, shown again at the departure gate and on arrival.
Bags then go through the X-ray and you walk through a metal detector. Liquids are not treated the way airports treat them: large water bottles, a thermos of tea and outside food are all fine, with no 100 ml bag.
Allow 40 minutes at an ordinary station and a full hour at Beijing South, Shanghai Hongqiao or Guangzhou South. Gates open 15 to 20 minutes before departure and close 3 to 5 minutes before, and that cutoff is enforced. The full walk-through is in our station and boarding guide.
What gets taken off you
| Item | Rule | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Power banks | 100 Wh maximum per unit, label legible | About 27,000 mAh at 3.7 V, 20,000 mAh at 5 V. Swollen or unlabelled units are refused |
| Aerosol cans | 150 ml per can, one per type, 600 ml total | Judged by can size, not by what is left inside |
| Perfume and flammable gels | 100 ml per container, one per type | Decant before you travel |
| Knives | Blade over 60 mm banned from the cabin | Check it or leave it. Under 60 mm is fine |
| Alcohol | 24 to 70 percent, sealed, 3,000 ml total | Above 70 percent is banned, as is loose or homemade liquor |
| Lighters, matches | 2 lighters, 2 small boxes | Not in checked baggage either |
| Self-heating meals | Banned outright | The heating pad is a flammable solid. This catches hikers |
| Pets | Guide dogs only in the cabin | Other animals need a quarantine certificate and checked transport |
One point that surprises travellers coming off a flight: rail does not require the 3C mark that Chinese airlines now demand on power banks. A clearly labelled 20,000 mAh bank an airport would reject is normally fine on a train.
Left luggage: check which side of security
Lockers are the cheapest option and the most commonly misjudged. At Beijing stations, small lockers run about 5 CNY per hour and large ones about 10 CNY per hour, per a China Central Television guide published in May 2026. The smart banks at Beijing Fengtai charge 3 to 6 CNY per hour with a daily cap of 20 to 40 CNY and run around the clock.
The catch is location. Several banks sit inside the departure area, past the ticket check, so you need a ticket for that day to reach them, which is useless if you want to drop a bag in the morning and collect it after a day out. Counter storage, usually near the ticket hall and outside security, charges a per-piece daily fee posted at the counter.
If the plan is a long layover rather than a train, see our day-tour options instead of defaulting to a locker.
Send the bags ahead with Qingzhuangxing
轻装行, run by China Railway Express, is the service worth knowing. It covers 212 stations, including provincial capitals, municipalities and separately listed cities, per the July 2026 expansion.
- Door to station: book 48 hours to 4 hours before departure. Staff collect the bag, clear it through security, then either lock it in a service cabinet 30 minutes before departure or bring it to your platform 10 minutes before.
- Station to door: book 24 hours to 1 hour before arrival, and the bag arrives within 5 hours.
Pricing moved in July 2026 from a flat fee to distance tiers. Door-to-station or station-to-door costs 48 CNY up to 10 km, 58 CNY to 20 km and 68 CNY to 35 km. Door-to-platform or platform-to-door costs 78, 88 and 98 CNY on the same bands. Business-class passengers can have bags brought to the lounge at Beijing West, Beijing South, Guangzhou South, Shanghai, Shanghai Hongqiao and Hangzhou East.
Book through the 12306 app or the China Railway Express mini-program. The forms are in Chinese, so for a non-Chinese speaker the counter at a major station is the realistic fallback. Bags must still meet the 20 kg and 130 cm limits and the prohibited list.
Shipping, sports gear and lost property
For anything that fails those limits, the express counter is the answer. China Railway Express takes oversized cases, bedding, tea and ceramics, priced by weight and by speed, booked in the app, the mini-program or at a station counter.
Sports equipment has its own channel. On the Beijing North to Chongli leg of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line, some carriages are modified for bikes and skis, booked on 12306 at 88 CNY per bicycle and 68 CNY per ski set. Folding bikes and e-scooters need a hard case and a battery under 100 Wh, and cannot be ridden inside the station.
Since June 2026 stations can also courier lost property. File at the lost-and-found office before you leave; they will ship a bag to an address in China for a fee. Recovering one from another city without that service is close to impossible.
The night-before check
- Weigh the case. Over 20 kg means paying or repacking.
- Measure L+W+H. Anything near 130 cm is a risk on a sold-out train.
- Read the power bank label. If the printing has worn off, leave it behind.
- Match aerosols to 150 ml and perfume to 100 ml, by container size.
- Screenshot the booking. You need the passport, not a printout.
FAQ
Can I bring a 20,000 mAh power bank? Yes, if the label is legible and the rating is at or under 100 Wh, which is roughly 20,000 mAh at 5 V. A bank with worn markings, a swollen case or no rating is refused regardless of capacity.
Does China Railway weigh luggage at the gate? Rarely. Staff look at size and at what comes out of the X-ray, and weight is charged only when a bag is clearly excessive or a conductor intervenes. The written limit is still 20 kg per adult.
Can I leave a suitcase at the station for the day? Usually, but confirm the locker bank is outside the ticket check. Lockers in the departure area need a same-day ticket. Counter storage near the ticket hall is safer for a day trip.
Is there a baggage car on Chinese trains? Not on high-speed trains; you carry your own bag to the racks at the car ends or the space behind the last row. Sleeper trains have room under the lower berth, covered in our sleeper guide.
Sources
- China Railway 12306, baggage allowance FAQ, passenger transport regulations and the prohibited-items catalogue, kyfw.12306.cn and mobile.12306.cn
- Revised China State Railway Group passenger regulations, effective 1 June 2026, official policy summary published by Jingzhou municipal government
- Guangming Daily and CCTV, Qingzhuangxing expansion to 212 stations and distance tiers, 8 July 2026
- China Central Television, high-speed rail luggage services guide, 30 May 2026
- Changchun culture and tourism bureau, security screening guide, 18 August 2026
Prices, station counts and service windows are as published on 3 November 2026. Confirm against 12306 and the station notice board on the day of travel.
