Does the Beijing-Shanghai HSR almost operate as a turn up and go service?
I would say it doesn't. Never had the experience ex Beijing, most of my experience is ex Shanghai. I prefer to book via C-Trip - even if it is last minute on the way to the station because you know what time you will get to the train station, be that 1-3 hours time.
My best experience of walk up to book a ticket, is that ticket is in 1.5 hours time, plus had 30 minutes in line to get to that point - so two hours - worst is 4 hour wait for next train - or no trains until tomorrow.
Almost every ticket is sold out by 4pm each day. Rocking up at 6pm, expecting a ticket for the last train option of the day at 8pm is wishful thinking - even off peak times.
I always book on Ctrip, with time to the station, plus having 30 minutes to line up for the ticket, and few minutes to get to gate/grab Mcd's etc in mind when I do so - especially Hongqiao - which is a few minutes walk from one end to the other.
You have to remember that 70% of Chinese also book online in advance - and are pooling from the same inventory. But most will not splash out for Business Class - but will choose First Class over 2nd class.
My handy hint when looking at trains, especially when looking at a run like Beijing to Shanghai - if you are not getting options you like - start to break it up over multiple tickets. Instead of a single Beijing to Shanghai, consider 3 tickets of Beijing to Xuzhou to Suzhou to Shanghai. It doesn't cost more other than admin costs per ticket which are bugger all - and can find you might be able to book it on the same train the whole way - just need to shift seats in the train per ticket - as seats are allocated at the time of booking - 1A might be free Beijing to Xuzhou, but someone in it Xuzhou-Shanghai, and then 1D is free Xuzhou to Shanghai but someone in it from Beijing - no booking engine will give you this option on a single ticket - because for it to issue it on a single ticket, the one seat cannot be allocated to anyone else for the whole journey. I have been there, done that, got me there today than tomorrow - with one of my tickets being a standing only one for 30 minutes between seats.
A common one I do is Suzhou to Ningbo - which has only 3 trains a day on under 1 ticket. However Suzhou has 100 plus trains a day to Shanghai Hongqiao, short 20-30 minute ride, and Hongqiao to Ningbo has 20-30 trains a day - which got me in the habit of looking at breaking things up when what you want is not an option.
Bus tickets is a different story....... plenty of them I would rock up and book on the day, and then hop directly onto the bus at times also.Z
Edit:
I would also add that out of Shanghai Hongqiao - I would always expect and plan 30 minutes in the que to get the ticket booked via C-Trip in my planed timings - and just be thankful when it is substantially less than that in the que.
The que to get your ticket ordered on C-Trip at any train station - is the same que/line to buy a ticket. The bonus of C-Trip is you are picking up a train ticket already purchased for a train in 10 minutes time, not for 1-4 hours time as all the trains for 10 minutes time were pre-ordered 2 hours ago.
Que's for tickets differs station to station, Ningbo is my best experience were 80% of the time you walk straight up to a counter, and 20% you have 2-5 people in line and 10 minute wait tops. Suzhou & Shanghai are my worst with 30 people deep ques the norm in my experience - and I have had a 45 minute wait in line at them also.
I cannot comment on Beijing, as I have taken a fast train to Beijing once, but never departed on a fast train from Beijing.
