中国每年的春运高峰期到来

China’s annual Spring Festival peak travel season has officially kicked off. Over the coming days hundreds of millions of Chinese will set off on their journey home for family reunions. This year, China’s railways are expecting 225 million passenger trips during the 40 day travel rush, ten million more than last year.

Jin Jushu is a ticket vendor at Beijing West Railway Station. To deal with the annual travel peak season, he’s been working nonstop for the past several days.

Jin Jushu said, "Although the travel rush officially starts on the 26th, our entire staff has already been working in 12 hour shifts, 24 hours a day."

China’s railways are expecting 225 million passenger trips during the 40 days of travel rush, up 4.6% year on year. Authorities are sparing no efforts to increase capacity to deal with the surge of passengers.

Song Jianguo, Deputy Party Secretary of Beijing West Railway Station, said, "During the 40 days, our station alone will serve 5.6 million passengers. Apart from 138 pairs of regular trains every day, we’ve added 38 pairs of temporary trains, which means there is one train leaving or coming every six minutes. In addition, we’ve added 61 ticket windows, 89 vending machines, and hired 300 volunteers. We also have special channels for migrant workers and students."

During this year’s travel season, high speed rail has proven to be a very popular option. With the Beijing Guangzhou high speed rail opening last month, a huge and important north to south route has complimented the already efficient nationwide high speed rail network, giving passengers more choices for transportation and relieving the pressure on the Spring Festival travel rush.

A passenger said, "We bought a high speed train ticket to Shijiazhuang for 120 yuan. It used to take 3 hours for the journey, but now, it’s only one hour. It’s much faster."

Spring Festival is the biggest annual holiday in the Chinese calendar. It’s a traditional occasion for family reunions and celebrations. This year’s travel rush will last 40 days from January 26th to March 6th.