China
Spring Festival exodus on the way
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Source: CCTV.com | 01-24-2008 09:05
Special Report: 2008 Spring FestivalPublic services are under pressure from bad weather, and also from a record number of travellers. The railways are jammed every day, but it's not stopping people from booking tickets home.
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Passengers queue up for boarding at Yantai Railway Station in Yantai, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 23, 2008. The 40-day Spring Festival travel peak across the country started on Jan. 23. Passengers in Yantai went on journey home for the Spring Festival celebration in heavy snow.(Xinhua Photo) |
Wednesday marks the sixth day of China's Spring Festival peak travel season. This is Beijing West Railway Station, where people are flooding in from all directions. They have a lot to organize for their trips home, but first they must get a ticket.
46-year-old Li Yunting has been a migrant worker in Beijing for more than ten years. He used to worry about not being able to get a ticket home. But that won't happen this time around.
Migrant worker Li Yunting said, "I go back home each year before the Spring Festival. Buying a ticket was a real headache. But it's not a problem this year because we have ticket offices especially for us."
Railway passengers have numbered about 4 million each day during the past week, up 400,000 from last year. The railways are expected to carry 179 million passengers in all this year, an 8 percent increase from 2007. But a string of measures are in place to ensure everything runs smoothly.