Dear Susan,
Thanks for contacting
Top China Travel!
There are about four ways to book train tickets in China: Directly buy ticket at the Railway Station, Booking China Train Ticket Online (www.12306.cn), Telephone Booking (call 95105105, Do not forget to add the area cord of your departure area in front of it)), booking tickets with China’s travel agencies. You may see the detals at
/customer-center/how-to-book-china-train-tickets.htm
As per your situation, you can buy the train tickets when you arrive in Kunming and make payment by cash. If you would like to buy tickets through travel agencies like us, a handling fee about 100 yuan for per ticket is charge. Excluding handling fee, hard seat costs 64 yuan per ticket, hard sleeper costs 103 yuan per ticket and soft sleeper costs 156 yuan per ticket. Usually, we suggest our clients to buy soft sleeper ticket. It is more comfortable.
If you still would like to book through TCT, more details shoud be advised. How many tickets would you like to book? Which date would you like to book for? What kind of ticket would you like to book, hard seat, hard sleeper or soft sleeper? About the differetn between them, you can see the details at
/customer-center/types-of-china-train-tickets.htm
Any further request or question, please feel free to contact with us.