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Train tickets are hard to come by

By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-05 07:30

GUANGZHOU: Chen Baoshan's excitement masked his exhaustion when he managed to buy three tickets to his hometown in Hubei province after queuing at Guangzhou station for two days Sunday.

"I never expected buying tickets would be so difficult as Spring Festival is more than three weeks away," said Chen, in his late 20s. He wanted tickets for himself, his wife and his brother-in-law.

"I queued the whole afternoon over the weekend but to no avail," said Chen, who, along with his wife, works for a furniture firm in the Pearl River Delta city of Foshan in Nanhai district, neighboring Guangzhou. "I rushed to the railway station at about 7 this morning. My brother-in-law and I took turns to queue up."

"On second thoughts, this is not unimaginable as many migrant workers like us don't have much work to do and want to return home early."

Chen said he and his wife modified their strategy to buy tickets; while he and his brother-in-law queued at the railway station, his wife dialed the ticket booking hotlines from home.

"We decided that whoever managed to buy the tickets would notify the others. I'm the one to get them," he said.

Pointing to the serpentine queues going up to the square outside the station, Chen said: "You can see from what they wear and judge from their accent that they are migrant workers like me."

Chen's boss laid off 30 workers recently, or about 10 percent of the total staff. He said he was lucky to keep his job because of his experience, but does not have much work to do. "Such cases are common in the place where I work," he said. "Many migrant workers are returning home."

Unforeseen eventualities that might cause delays is another reason why migrant workers are leaving early. "Migrant workers worry about eventualities that might delay them, like the snow storms we experienced a year ago," said Xie Xiaoling, an executive at Guangzhou railway station.

Last year's snowstorms prevented or delayed over 13 million people from returning home during Spring Festival season, she said.