Monday to see holiday travel peak

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Source: CCTV.com | 02-11-2008 11:08

Special Report:   2008 Spring Festival
Special Report:   Winter Storm Relief

Sunday was Day Five of China's lunar new year. Transport departments forecast that the holiday travel peak could return as early as Monday, with millions of people heading back to work.

A tidal wave of passengers began to hit China's eastern railways.

The Ministry of Railways said that it has arranged over 220 extra trains to address the travel wave, which began to surge on the fifth day of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, one day earlier than in previous years. Local railway departments in the national capital of Beijing, south China's Guangdong Province and east China's Shanghai all reported that the pressure of return-trip travel increased on Sunday, and may reach a peak on Monday.

A migrant worker from Guangzhou said, "I plan to travel back home before the transport rush, and spend the lantern festival with my family."

The Guangdong provincial railway department said that train tickets for travel between Monday and Wednesday had been sold out on Friday, the third day of the week-long holiday.

A tidal wave of passengers began to hit China's eastern railways, according to the Shanghai Railway Bureau on Saturday, after a short break of the snarled transport taking passengers away from the commercial hub ahead and at the beginning of the holiday.

Two railway stations in Beijing forecast that the total daily passenger arrivals would exceed 100,000 on Monday and Tuesday.

But the busy traffic cannot stop people making full use of the big annual holiday.

A Taiwan resident said, "It's not easy to have a big holiday so I have brought all my family here to our motherland for some sightseeing."

The Ministry of Communications observed rising traffic on short-distance road travel, and a recovery of cross-provincial passenger transport, which had been damaged in many expressway sections in snow-hit eastern, central and southern China regions. China's leading on-line ticket booking agencies suggested that no discount air tickets were available for flights to major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing from Monday to Wednesday.

 

Editor:Liu Fang