Trains are nearly flawless, booking process is easy, but prepare yourself for a middle seat
The trains themselves are phenomenal - China’s rail system is one of the greatest infrastructure achievements in human history, I’d say comparable only to the Roman aqueducts and the Inca roads. China Highlights is one of the best ways for a foreigner to book tickets. Simple, fluid, affordable, and gets you a seat. If there’s one gripe I have with them, it’s that you almost never get *good* seats. On the high speed trains, seats are 2x3 across, so you have a 20% chance of getting a middle seat; when you book with China Highlights, empirically I’d say it’s more like 50%. If you do get a window seat, it’s almost always one that it between actual windows, so you’re looking at the column between windows whereas the people ahead and behind you can look out the real window. You’d think that this is because I book at last minute when the good seats are taken, but I don’t. I think China Railways designates a handful of specifically undesirable seats to be booked by tourist booking agencies, whereas the better seats can be booked on WeChat, mostly used by Chinese nationals. I’m dwelling too much on this point. Unless you can book tickets on WeChat, and for that you need a Chinese bank account, absolutely use China Highlights.