Over the past week, the Hongkou Gymnasium has been one of the most densely populated places in Shanghai. The gymnasium recently decided to open all night, allowing migrant workers waiting for tickets to stay indoors.

Local railway authorities set up a special ticket booth at the gymnasium for the peak traffic season brought by the upcoming Spring Festival.

The location, which has 40 ticketing windows including two specially set up for students, was scheduled to be open from January 20 to February 5 and sell tickets from 8am to 6pm.

Yesterday afternoon, an about 300-meter-long line of people were waiting on the sidewalks near the gymnasium along Quyang Road.

"We are not lining up to enter the gymnasium or to buy tickets today. Here we are just waiting for the fall of night, then we can go indoor and stay there tonight," said a migrant laborer from Lanzhou City in Gansu Province, as he waited in line.

The man arrived there around 7am to buy a train ticket home on February 5, but he couldn't get one. The ticket booth can sell tickets 10 days before the departure date, and the ticket he wanted was sold out.

"Now I have to wait here until tomorrow so that I can enter the gymnasium as soon as it starts to sell tickets," he added. "Although I will delay my return date by two days, I think I'll be lucky enough if I can manage to buy a ticket for February 7 tomorrow."

Most people waiting there were ready to stay at the gymnasium overnight. Many migrant workers were reading newspapers or napping while in line.

"I have prepared some bread for tonight. As long as I put up with the night-long wait, I can go home to spend the Lunar New Year," said another person from Anhui Province.

Previously the gymnasium closed as soon as ticket sales ended, leaving many people waiting outside all night.

(Shanghai Daily January 29, 2005)