Chinese police claim to have broken Beijing's largest ever illegal Internet train ticket scalping racket after complaints from would-be travelers of ticket shortages before the week-long National Day Holiday.

Police seized 225 tickets with a value of 53,000 yuan (US$7,057) when they arrested Wang Junbao, 29, as he was dealing with a client he had contacted through the Internet.

"I booked these tickets days before and charged 50 to 150 yuan more than the face value for each ticket," said Wang.

Police said they found tickets for services on 45 railway lines, covering one third of China's railway system.

"He was amazingly audacious," said policeman Fan Lipeng, who was involved in the arrest.

Under Chinese law, train ticket scalpers dealing in tickets worth 5,000 yuan can face jail sentences of up to three years and fines ranging from 5,000 yuan up to five times the face value of the tickets.

Scalpers used to sell tickets direct to buyers, sometimes inside train stations, but now they use text messages or the Internet.

Ticket advertisements posted by the scalpers are ubiquitous on the Internet in the run-up to and after holiday travel peaks.

"Queue for a whole hour only to find the train tickets have been sold out or have them delivered with a click of the mouse -- it's up to you," says one scalper's advertisement on the Internet.

"It's a win-win deal because we earn money and those who need a ticket can get what they want by only paying a little more," said one ticket scalper surnamed Huang, squatting on the ground at Beijing Railway Station.

"It's better to buy an expensive ticket than to have no ticket because without scalpers there would still not be enough tickets," he said.

However, a Ministry of Railways official surnamed Lu said, "No matter how plausible their excuses sound, they're breaking the law."

Authorized ticket agents, who charge a five-yuan fee for each ticket, often sell out tickets on popular services.

"The scalpers always have access to tickets so I suspect there's some relationship with the railway station and have to turn to them for expensive tickets," said Li, a Beijing commuter who travels to Shandong Province every May Day holiday, National Day holiday and Spring Festival Holiday, three major week-long travel peaks.

Police have pledged to resort to the high-tech means and uproot the scalpers to ensure the ticket sales.

"We have built an information base of some 80 veteran scalpers in Beijing and will monitor them with surveillance cameras in train stations and strengthen Internet monitoring and tracking," said Zhang Xudong, a senior police officer at Beijing West Railway Station.

"We will keep a close eye on those who post ads to sell more than three train tickets through the Internet at one time," he added.

Police at Beijing West Railway Station had handled ten cases since the launch of an "Operation Blue Shield" against Internet scalpers on Sep. 11.

It is estimated that during this year's ten-day May Day Holiday travel peak, more than 448 million passengers traveled by train, a six-percent rise from the previous year.

Chinese airlines slash fares only during off seasons. Air fares are on average five times more expensive than the corresponding train fare during travel peaks.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2007)