Tang Xia, a junior at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, plans to go home for a family reunion during the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year festival.

She booked her train ticket online nearly two weeks ago and picked it up from a retailer on Tuesday.

"From now on, I will never need to queue in long lines at night just so I can buy a train ticket for the holidays," she said, referencing the long-running troubles train passengers in China have faced, especially during peak travel times like the traditional Spring Festival or the Chinese Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese travel throughout the country to spend the holidays with family and loved ones.

To ease the burden of buying train tickets, the Ministry of Railways, a central government department as well as China's sole rail operator, began allowing passengers to purchase most kinds of tickets through the ministry's online booking service from Dec. 21, 2011.

Moreover, the ministry announced that a long-discussed real-name system will be launched for all passengers from Jan. 1, 2012. This move is seen as the only way to curb rampant illegal ticket scalping and speculation.

In addition, this year, some online shoppers have started a B2C site that sells daily commodities online under the logo of CRE, or the China Railway Express Co., Ltd.

As of Dec. 20, the CRE's online mall has witnessed a trading of 143,814 pieces of daily commodities, worth 9.34 million yuan (146 million U.S. dollars).

"We are new and still testing and improving its functions," said Huang Jian, a manager with the CRE Co. Ltd.

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