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Official estimates show Chinese people will make more than 1.8 billion journeys during the traditional Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, which begins on February 1.
Among them, 1.65 billion journeys are to be by railway, a four percent increase compared with the same peak period last year. The majority of passengers will be students, migrant laborers and tourists.
To help relieve the pressure of getting a ticket, the Beijing Railway Bureau has started selling group tickets to 200,000 students at Beijing Universities.
In some very popular return destinations, like Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Chengdu, the railway bureau will run additional trains specifically for students.
To prepare for any emergencies, the Beijing Railway Bureau has dozens of trains on standby that can be used if congestion occurs in different areas.
As Guangzhou could be the city with the largest migrant labor force in China, the Guangzhou Railway Bureau has prepared a series of emergency plans to counter any potential problems of moving passengers.
(People’s Daily December 23, 2002)
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