Lunar New Year Train Tickets Hard to Get—200 Million Chinese Travelers
NTDTelevision
2012-01-11
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The New Year travel period started yesterday in China as almost 200 million people—many of them migrant workers—try to get home to spend the Lunar New Year with their families. Although train tickets can now be booked through the Internet and over the phone, Chinese citizens are still finding it difficult to get them.
The world's largest annual human migration—hundreds of millions of Chinese people return home to spend the Lunar New Year with their families. Most of them rely on China's railway network. About 200 million people travel during the season every year, and the number is increasing. Travelers often go through considerable trouble to get tickets, and this year is no exception.
Web users in China have been complaining online about the problem. One published a letter online that said he had tried to buy tickets 600 times, but still had not obtained any. Another web user posted online that she had phoned the ticket line 800 times to try to buy a ticket home from Guangzhou, but still could not get one.
Mr. Li from the Zhen Gong Fu restaurant at Beijing's main railway station said he has found it hard to get a ticket to go to his home in Hunan Province.
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[Railway Customer Service Center]:
"Because we have adopted the real name system this year, it has allowed people to book online or over the phone, but because there are especially many people trying to book now, it has jammed the website and phone lines."
The phenomenon of the New Year migration started in the late 70's when economic reforms led to work opportunities in coastal "Special Economic Zones" such as Guangzhou. It is now common for migrant workers to travel a long way away from their village to find work in China's factories and face a challenge to get home for the Lunar New Year.
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The New Year travel period started yesterday in China as almost 200 million people—many of them migrant workers—try to get home to spend the Lunar New Year with their families. Although train tickets can now be booked through the Internet and over the phone, Chinese citizens are still finding it difficult to get them.
The world's largest annual human migration—hundreds of millions of Chinese people return home to spend the Lunar New Year with their families. Most of them rely on China's railway network. About 200 million people travel during the season every year, and the number is increasing. Travelers often go through considerable trouble to get tickets, and this year is no exception.
Web users in China have been complaining online about the problem. One published a letter online that said he had tried to buy tickets 600 times, but still had not obtained any. Another web user posted online that she had phoned the ticket line 800 times to try to buy a ticket home from Guangzhou, but still could not get one.
Mr. Li from the Zhen Gong Fu restaurant at Beijing's main railway station said he has found it hard to get a ticket to go to his home in Hunan Province.
[...]
[...]
[Railway Customer Service Center]:
"Because we have adopted the real name system this year, it has allowed people to book online or over the phone, but because there are especially many people trying to book now, it has jammed the website and phone lines."
The phenomenon of the New Year migration started in the late 70's when economic reforms led to work opportunities in coastal "Special Economic Zones" such as Guangzhou. It is now common for migrant workers to travel a long way away from their village to find work in China's factories and face a challenge to get home for the Lunar New Year.
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