According to the Announcement on Promoting the Use of Fully Digitized Electronic Invoices for Railway Passenger Transport (Joint Announcement No 8 [2024] issued by the State Taxation Administration, the Ministry of Finance, and China State Railway Group Co):

Passengers claiming reimbursement and bookkeeping shall obtain electronic invoices (railway electronic passenger tickets). Purchasers are encouraged to adopt fully paperless processing of electronic invoices (railway electronic passenger tickets) upon receipt, in compliance with the relevant standards for electronic voucher accounting data.

For rides taken on or before Sept 30, 2025, paper railway tickets (paper reimbursement vouchers) remain valid for reimbursement and bookkeeping. Paper reimbursement vouchers and electronic railway invoices cannot be issued in duplicate.