The Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is only three weeks away. Tens of millions of people across China have started returning to their hometowns to be with their families during the most important Chinese festival.

Travellers queue up to board a train heading for Tibet at Xining Railway Station in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai province January 4, 2009. An early travel rush with travellers mainly migrant workers and college students returning home arrives for Spring Festival holiday. [Xinhua]

The six-week Spring Festival peak travel period begins in five days. Railway officials are expecting a record 188 million train passengers during the period. Authorities are taking measures to ensure efficiency.

At the Shanghai Railway Station, automatic vending machines will ease pressure at the ticket windows. And railway authorities in South China's Guangdong Province have launched phone ticket sales services. Temporary trains and ticket windows for special groups of passengers have been added to railway stations across China.