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China begins Spring Festival travel rush
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China has begun its annual Spring Festival travel rush, with more than 2.5 billion expected passenger trips in the coming 40 days. Extra airlines and trains have been added to cope with the passenger surge, which is 11.6 percent up year on year.
It is the time of the year people must go home. And this is the world's largest human migration.
Traveller Xia Jianzhang said, "It's really hard to get a ticket. I am trying to buy a train ticket to Wuhan, and I have to start queuing for it 10 days ahead. I checked with the ticket agent yesterday, they said they haven't started selling tickets, but when I went there this morning, they told me all the tickets had been sold out."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Railways says travelling by train is still the first choice for most Chinese people, especially during the Spring Festival travel season.
Wang Yongping, spokesman of Railway Ministry,said, "No matter how many seats we are able to provide, tickets are always sold out every year, so the transport capacity of railways is far from meeting the demand of travelers, and the number of travelers this year is more than ever before."
Apart from ticket shortages, possible weather difficulties will be another problem for millions of travellers when they attempt to travel home.
Snow and sleet has struck some provinces in the southern part of China and disrupted transportation networks in recent weeks.
Airlines and trains have been added to cope with the passenger surge. It's 11.6 percent up year on year.
And according to the Ministry of Transport, five aspects of work have been arranged ahead of the travel peak. They are anti-ice preparation, information release, monitoring networks, emergency reaction and cooperation with public security bureaus.
Traveller Yang Qi said, "The lunar new year is China's traditional festival, and all our family members are going to gather at home."
As Yang says it might be the only chance that all family members are able to get together. So no matter how many days it takes to queue up for tickets, or how bad the weather will be, nothing can stop them. And the journey home is never too long.
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