Advanced booking for train tickets during China's 2017 Spring Festival travel rush opens on Thursday, with hundreds of millions vying for a ticket home.
This year, the pre-booking period for Spring Festival train rides has shortened from 60 days as set in 2016 to 30 days before the start of the rush, which lasts from January 13 to February 21, chinanews.com reported on Wednesday
A record 3 billion trips are expected to be made during this year's mass migration, up 2.2 percent year-on-year, according to a statement from the nation's transport authorities on November 29, the Xinhua News Agency reported on December 6.
The statement also pointed out that among the total number of trips, there will be 2.52 billion road trips, 360 million train trips and 58.3 million trips by air.
Nearly 17 percent of rail travelers will travel on trains for hours standing up during the rush as Chinese return home for family reunions before and during the festival, according to a big data report cited by chinanews.com.
The report was conducted by travel website Qunar.com based on analysis of more than 600,000 flights and 500,000 train rides.
High-speed train rides will account for almost 40 percent of this year's migration trips, Xinhua cited the report as saying on December 6.
The rush will also be complicated by tough weather conditions around the country including La Niña, a cold winter and smoggy days.
Helpful netizens have come up with a "guide to getting a ticket" describing the best ways to purchase them online by using certain applications and avoiding the busiest days.
During the 2016 Spring Festival travel rush, 64.6 percent of rail travelers booked their tickets online with 39 percent booked via mobile apps, according to Xinhua.
Chinese passengers made a record of 400 million trips during the week of the Spring Festival holiday itself of 2016, according to the Ministry of Transport on February 14, Xinhua reported.
