Holiday ticket rush builds up steam
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During the 2011 chunyun there will be 2.56 billion bus journeys, up 11.6 percent from 2010, and 230 million train trips, up 12.5 percent from last year, the ministries of transport and railways have predicted.
The Guangzhou Railway Station opened all its 20 ticket booths, built six tents outside the hall as waiting areas, and transferred 70 staff members from railway management companies to maintain order at the booths.
Cai Mingjun, one of the order-keepers, said that all the staff were in place by Sunday, but the huge numbers of passengers still exceeded their expectations.
"But this is not yet peak time. We should make really serious preparation for Jan 19, when chunyun begins," Cai said.
In Shanghai, 850 ticket offices and 160 automatic ticket machines were selling train tickets all over the city.
Last week, to prevent ticket scalping, the Shanghai railway police cleared up 276 scalping operations, seizing 544 suspects and 2,945 train tickets worth more than 420,000 yuan ($50,600).
In Central China, the Wuhan railways bureau introduced a real-name ticket system on Monday to curb scalping.
The system requires travelers to use their ID cards, or other personal identity papers, to book tickets, as occurred during the 2010 Spring Festival in some cities.
Jiang Qi, a resident in Wuhan, went to the railway station at 6 am and bought the city's first real-name ticket at 8:30 am.
"It took me only two minutes to buy a ticket - just show my ID card, scan it on an identification instrument, and print the ticket," Jiang said.
The passenger's ID number and name are printed on the bottom left of the ticket, and an inspector will check it when the ticket holder enters the station.
The system will also be used in some railway lines in Xi'an in Shaanxi province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Guangzhou.
Despite the measures against scalping, passengers still find it very difficult to buy tickets during chunyun.
