2011 Spring Festival transport peak is coming!!

2011 Spring Festival transport peak is coming!!
Jan 10, 2011 04:06
SERENA07 Points: Join Date: Feb 7, 2007 Status: offline	The 2011 Spring Festival travel season (Chunyun) of China will start Jan. 19 and end on Feb. 27, that's to say, 15 days before the Spring Festival (Feb.3, 2011), and 25 days after the festival. The transport rush has already started in Beijing since Jan. 9. If you plan to travel to China to have the [tcgurl=https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/spring-festival.htm]Spring Festival[/tcgurl], you should know that moving around China during this period will be extremely difficult. The transport rush has been called the largest annual human migration in the world as the number of passenger journeys during this period will exceed the population of China. Rail transport experiences the biggest challenge during the period. Flight tickets and bus tickets are also hard to buy. Do remember to pre-book your tickets. During the Spring Festival travel season, over 40 railway stations will adopt the real-name system in buying train tickets. These stations are Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha etc. In addition, Zhengzhou-Xian High Speed Railway and Wuhan-Guangzhou High Speed Railway also require real-name tickets. Passengers need to use their ID card (passport for foreigners) to buy tickets.

Jan 10, 2011 04:06

SERENA07
Points:
Join Date: Feb 7, 2007
Status: offline

The 2011 Spring Festival travel season (Chunyun) of China will start Jan. 19 and end on Feb. 27, that's to say, 15 days before the Spring Festival (Feb.3, 2011), and 25 days after the festival. The transport rush has already started in Beijing since Jan. 9.

If you plan to travel to China to have the [tcgurl=https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/spring-festival.htm]Spring Festival[/tcgurl], you should know that moving around China during this period will be extremely difficult. The transport rush has been called the largest annual human migration in the world as the number of passenger journeys during this period will exceed the population of China. Rail transport experiences the biggest challenge during the period. Flight tickets and bus tickets are also hard to buy. Do remember to pre-book your tickets.

During the Spring Festival travel season, over 40 railway stations will adopt the real-name system in buying train tickets. These stations are Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha etc. In addition, Zhengzhou-Xian High Speed Railway and Wuhan-Guangzhou High Speed Railway also require real-name tickets. Passengers need to use their ID card (passport for foreigners) to buy tickets.

Jan 10, 2011 04:11	#1
SERENA07 Points: Join Date: Feb 7, 2007 Status: Offline	wow! so many people wating for buying train tickets

Jan 17, 2011 03:24	#2
CHERRY07 Points: Join Date: Mar 23, 2008 Status: Offline	2011 Spring Festival transport peak is coming! And the train ticket prices are also raised.

Feb 6, 2013 04:14

GUESTYUQI LIU

The prices of train tickets in Spring Transportation in China stopped raising since 2006. Of course if you buy tickets from scalpers, the price is higher. Railway stations and trains during the peak is indeed often terrible, for there are way too many people heading towards their home to get together with their families. However, in the past years, things are going better. Prices stopped raising, more trains are manufactured to hold more people, new railways are built, and people can buy tickets on-line to avoid standing in long queues for hours in the tickets offices.

Take it for me. I am a college student in China and now I'm senior, so I have been "experiencing" the Chunyun Peak for four years. In the past three years, I did not dare to buy a ticket by myself. The ministry of Education and the ministry of Railway in China has a policy to offer college students their train tickets ahead of time to ensure that they can get a ticket with a booked seat during the peak (this happens before the tickets are open to public, for there is a possibility that people cannot get a ticket even if people order tickets immediately when tickets are available). Tickets for students are half-price for hard seats, more than half-price for hard sleepers, and 25% off for second-class seats in Multiply Unit Trains (This is because students generally do not have incomes, and it is indeed a boom for students). I took advantage of the policy for the first three years, and I got a hard-seat ticket each year. But the train travel from Xi'an (where my university locates) to Shijiazhuang (my hometown) takes more than ten hours. I have to sit in crowded carriages motionlessly for consecutive ten hours! (Some people are even poorer, they failed to get a booked seat, so they have to stand for hours)

In 2012, the ministry of Railway launched ordering train tickets on-line. After a year, 2013 is the fourth year that I take part in the Chunyun peak. I managed to buy a ticket on-line this time, and I successfully get a HARD-SLEEPER ticket! (Although those tickets are sold out after half a minute... Thanks to my outstanding mastery of computer techniques) "Chunyun" in Chinese can also stand for "The spring sports meeting", and there is a widespread joke that people have to stand in queues to get a ticket, rush to the trains to be able to get on the crowded cars, stand for 20 hours to eventually get home to finish the "Chunyun" sports meeting.

Why do people suffer so much only to go home in Spring Festival, you might ask. The spring festival in China is extremely important for Chinese people. It's like Thanksgiving in US and CA, but the emotion is much deeper. If people fail to get home the day before Lunar New Year's Day, moms and dads may miss so much and they will cry over the failure to reunion. Sons and daughters will cry too, for they are unable to take care of their parents those days. Speaking of Chunyun, every Chinese has too much to say...(Forgive my tedious article)

Feb 6, 2013 20:18	#4
CHERRY07 Points: Join Date: Mar 23, 2008 Status: Offline	Speaking of Chunyun, every Chinese has too much to say... It's true. Last night, a man died at the platform when he was running to get on a train at the Xian Railway Station. What a pity! He went back for family reunion. Now he left his family forever.

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