Developer builds free bilingual railway station finder to ease travel in China

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A developer has launched Ask-China, a free web tool designed to help foreign travelers navigate China's high-speed rail network without knowledge of the local language. The tool allows users to enter familiar landmarks or hotel names rather than railway station names, then surfaces nearby station candidates with both English and Chinese labels. Cities like Beijing and Shanghai have multiple major stations spread far apart, making station selection a costly and confusing step for international visitors. Built in React with a server-side place-search endpoint, the tool matches locations against a controlled station registry to avoid surfacing invalid results. Ask-China focuses solely on helping travelers identify and copy the correct bilingual station pair, leaving ticket booking, fare checks, and availability to China's official 12306 rail service.

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