The mass exodus for the holidays that bring Chinese families together is already underway. This year, a record 9.5 billion passenger trips are expected, 540 million by rail. With tickets hard to come by on the busiest routes on key days, the authorities are trying to stem the proliferation of travel agencies that exploit the imbalance between supply and demand.

Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Chunyun is in full swing in China. The great exodus that characterises the Lunar New Year, which falls on 17 February this year, is also the longest holiday period during which families have the opportunity to reunite.

The Chinese government estimates that this year, in the 40-day window surrounding the New Year, a record 9.5 billion passenger trips will be made. Of these, approximately 540 million will be by train, 95 million by air, and the remainder by road.

By comparison, approximately 1.25 billion passenger trips are made each year within the Schengen area in Europe; this means that during Chunyun alone, the movement of people in China is almost eight times greater.

With numbers like these, China’s railway system comes under great pressure.

Despite massive investments in high-speed lines in recent years and the increase in services during the Lunar New Year weeks, it is practically inevitable that bottlenecks will form during the days of peak demand.

This is especially true on the busiest lines, like the Beijing-Guangzhou line or the one that crosses the country from east to west, from Shanghai to Chengdu. As a result, the rush for tickets becomes a real challenge every year.

And as is the case across the world, even in the People's Republic of China, there is no shortage of people trying to take advantage of travellers during the busy holiday periods.

In theory, this should not happen because train tickets are purchased through the official 12306 platform at a fixed price; therefore, it should not rise with growing demand.

In reality, however, some people buy up the most popular tickets to resell them at a higher price on the black market.

To address this issue, the purchase of train tickets has required real-name registration for the past few years, a measure that has only stimulated more creative ways to exploit the structural imbalance between supply and demand.

Lately, one of the most popular involves agencies that during the Chunyun period offer themselves as intermediaries for train ticket purchases, promising “dual channels” or privileged access to “remaining tickets" through which they can secure (obviously at a surcharge) the ticket travellers are struggling to obtain on their own.

Such practices recently prompted the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation to convene an administrative meeting with 12 major platforms involved in online rail ticket sales, requiring them to uphold “their social responsibilities”.

Making claims or even suggestions that consumers can obtain privileges or priority in purchasing tickets through paid services has been banned, with the order to promptly correct misleading ads.

The Bureau also imposed the first fine of 500,000 yuan on one of the parties involved.

“On the one hand,” notes the Shanghai-based online newspaper thepaper.cn, “the railway department needs to further optimise capacity allocation and rationally distribute ticket resources; on the other hand, it should also optimise the waiting list system and reminder functions to improve the market environment.”

Meanwhile, since mid-January, the China Railway Express has expanded its Light Travel baggage service to 111 stations across the country, covering most major cities.

The service is booked via an app, and professional couriers collect heavy luggage directly from your home and deliver it to the station or directly to your final destination, eliminating the need to lug bulky suitcases through crowded terminals.

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• china
• lunar new year
• chunyun
• celebrations
• travel
• scams