Rail Travelers in China During Chinese New Year

188 million train travelers during the Chinese New Year Holidays in 2009!  They are either on the way to home for family union, or back to their the cities where they are working at… It’s staggering, but true. A group of people equal to the fifth largest population by country in the world (Brazil) will be traveling by rail over the holidays in China. Don’t try to get a ticket now unless you enjoy standing in long lines with lots of people.

Most people can only get hard-seat ticket, it is probably the cheapest way to travel at this moment.  Sitting only carriages, they are usually crowded and often more tickets are sold than there are seat available.   Many people stand for hours on the journey, and it is terribly crowded.

Chinese train schedule search tool…