With all his bags safely locked in the brand-new automatic lockers at Shanghai's main railway station, Zhang Guoyun, a 28-year-old migrant worker from Hunan Province, wandered the stores outside the station in search of last-minute Chinese New Year's gifts for his family back home.

The train station may not have looked much busier than normal yesterday, but the arrival of Zhang and other migrant workers like him marks the start of the busy Spring Festival travel period.

The Shanghai Railway Station saw a slight increase in passenger volume yesterday, but heavier traffic is expected soon.

The station handled some 85,000 passengers yesterday, up from the 78,000 it sees on an average weekday, said Tang Hu, an official at the station.

"An additional 13 trains have been added to cope with the growing number of college students and migrant workers," Tang said.

While most office workers only get one week off for the holiday, travel increases for a 40-day period due to the number of migrant workers and college students who spend a few weeks at home during the biggest festival for the Chinese.

Railway officials predicted that the peak before the Chinese Lunar New Year, which is to fall on February 12 this year, will probably arrive on February 4 through February 10, with daily passenger volume reaching as much as 140,000 people on average.

The station expects to handle a total of 3.64 million passengers during the 40-day travel peak this year, an increase of 4 percent from the same period a year ago.

Staff at the Zhixing Everbright Long-Distance Bus Station said they also saw a small increase in passenger volume on the first day of the travel period.

"We have seen a steady increase in passengers over the past week and are expecting more in the next few days," said a station employee.

Officials expect some 1.6 million people to leave the city by bus during the period, up 22 percent from last year.

Airlines are also preparing for a boom in business during the festival.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines said it handled a total of 202 flights yesterday, about the same number it handles on an average weekday.

The carrier plans to add nearly 1,000 flights during the period, most to big cities on the main-land and overseas tourist destinations, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.

( eastday.com January 29, 2002)