Tickets for long-distance trains departing the Shenzhen Railway Station and the Shenzhen West Railway Station from January 12, the first day of the Spring Festival transportation period, are selling fast, the Shenzhen Railway Station said.

Around 21,000 tickets had been sold through the 9510-5160 and 9602-0086 ticket-booking system in two days. All the tickets for trains on January 12 were sold out.

Fifteen minutes after the booking system was put into service at 7:00 AM on Friday, the numbers had received 190,000 calls. By 8:00 AM, 720,000 calls had come in. Tickets to Wuchang, Changsha, Yueyang, Beijing, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu for January 12 were booked out in the morning.

During the Spring Festival transportation period that lasts until February 19, the Guangzhou Railway Group opened a telephone ticket-booking system at nine railway stations across Guangdong Province.

For trains starting from Guangzhou and Foshan, passengers in the province can dial 9510-5105 or 9602-0088.

Guangzhou Railway Station will add 13 temporary trains before the Spring Festival, but the waiting hall is at Pazhou Exhibition Hall on Xingang Road East in Haizhu District. Passengers are required to arrive there three hours before departure, and the railway station will arrange a Metro train two hours in advance to transport the passengers to the Guangzhou Railway Station.

During the Spring Festival transportation period, also known as chunyun, all bullet trains between Shenzhen and Guangzhou will only stop at the Guangzhou East Railway Station. The railway authorities remind Shenzhen residents who will take trains from Guangzhou to leave home five hours ahead of schedule to provide more time for bus and Metro transfers.

The railway authorities also welcome reports about illegal activities such as overcharging or ticket scalping by calling (0755) 8232-8620 or 2558-9506.

(Shenzhen Daily January 5, 2009)