Ms Pitt on the Oriental-List has a great grasp on what it means to speak a foreign language when you are travelling:

<quote>
Do not be afraid to say these short sentences in chinese.  While a
normal Chinese person may not understand them, a ticket agent will,
because the ticket agent is only expecting you to say one of a few
things.  So, learn how to pronounce pinyin more or less, and you will
be fine in these encounters.  Do not be afraid of Chinese because you
think you are tone-deaf.  Chinese people are not dumb and so if you
ask (even with a poor accent) a ticket agent about tickets or a hotel
manager clerk about hotel room prices, they will very likely understand.

And then just repeat yourself.</quote>

In fact, her <a href="text/OL_Bupiao.txt" title="[Oriental-List] Train tickets when you want, to where you want">whole e-mail</a> on upgrading train tickets is priceless information for the China traveller.