The Chinese Ministry of Railways announced Friday that the
country's lunar New Year's traveler peak season started on Jan. 18,
six days ahead of its predicted arrival.
That means this year the country's Spring Festival would last from January 18 to
March 2, six days longer than the previous schedule.
A police officer maintains
order at the railway station in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern
China's Hebei Province on?January 17, 2008.
The ministry said the total number of railway passengers stood
at 3.96 million on January 16.
China's traditional Spring Festival starts on February 7 and
during the upcoming over-one-month's annual peak season, millions
of people are on the move for family gatherings and then returning
to their work cities and towns.
"This year, before the Lunar New Year's eve, the passenger flow
would possibly be bigger than the flow after the Lantern Festival
-- the 15th day of the Lunar new year," said Wang Yongping, the
ministry spokesman.
Wang added that passengers figures for trains bound for
Shanghai, eastern Zhejiang's Hangzhou and Ningbo cities are
surging.
The ministry forecasted that the country's railways would carry
a record 178.6 million passengers, up from 156 million a year
earlier.
The Ministry of Railways said last week it planned to arrange an
additional 622 trains over the holiday period to increase capacity
and would not raise ticket prices, a practice adopted last year and
widely applauded.
China is also providing migrant workers with round-trip tickets
this year, which had previously been available to students
only.
The ministry is organizing four enforcement supervision teams to
go nationwide to uncover those breaking the law by reselling train
tickets and to guarantee the transportation of important goods and
materials including grain.
Northeastern Shenyang city's north railway station ordered that
no railway staff was allowed to buy tickets for others, in an
effort to prevent ticket reselling, and if any passenger reports
such unlawful activities, he or she would get a 200 yuan (US$27.6)
prize.
China also expected a record 2.15 billion bus travelers across
the country over the upcoming Lunar New Year period. The record -
three times as big as the entire population of Europe - represented
an increase of five percent from the same period a year earlier,
said the Ministry of Communications earlier this week.
Official statistics showed that there would be 22 million
passengers taking airlines during the Lunar New Year season, up 10
percent year on year.
Passengers wait for trains
at the railway station in Tongnan County in southwestern China's
Chongqing Municipal on, January 16, 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2008)
