Snail rail

Ma Hui, planned to take a bullet train from her home in Dongguan, Guangdong province, to Guangzhou and then catch another train to Kunming on Sept 29.

Keeping to her usual practice, Ma arrived at the local railway station to buy her ticket two hours before the scheduled departure of the train she planned to take. She felt she had left enough time, because the journey only takes around 25 minutes and trains run every quarter of an hour.

"I can always buy the ticket directly at the station. Even during the National Day holiday, I thought I could get a standing ticket at worst," she said.

However, when she got to the ticket office, there wasn't a train available for five hours. Despite having originally dismissed the idea of road travel for fear of congestion, Ma decided to take a cab to Guangzhou. The driver managed to find a relatively clear route and drove at about 100 km per hour, ignoring the speed limit of 80. The journey took around 60 minutes.

However, Ma's problems didn't end there, "The train was leaving in five minutes and the gate had closed," said Ma.

Fortunately, Ma was able to buy a ticket for the following day, although she was put to the expense of staying in Guangzhou overnight.

Meanwhile, 13,000 people were stranded at a station in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province, on the last working day before the holiday, according to reports in the local Chutian Metropolis Daily newspaper.