Construction workers in Tianjin hold train tickets for the Spring Festival, which falls on January 28. Migrant workers account for the majority of travelers during the holiday exodus.Photos Provided To Chinadaily
Groups of volunteers are using their leisure time to book train tickets online and help migrant workers return home for the nation's most important holiday.
Instead of preparing for end-of-year exams, Zhao Hongli, a freshman at Inner Mongolia Agricultural University in Hohot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, spent his time on something less interesting, but equally tough - buying train tickets for about 100 migrant workers so they could get home for Spring Festival, the most important holiday for family reunions.
Although many tech-savvy people are familiar with the process of buying tickets via the internet or mobile apps, it can be a baffling experience for migrant workers, many of whom have only received a basic education.
About 3 billion trips are expected during the Spring Festival travel rush, which runs from Jan 13 to Feb 21. The great demand for tickets means they can sell out within minutes of sales opening, and instead the booking system, which is intended to save people from lining up at station ticket offices, leaves many people frustrated.
The workers' plight prompted Zhao to help, so he started working as a volunteer for an NGO called Yijiaqin, or "Close like a Family", in the Baodi district of Tianjin, the northern port city that is his hometown. The NGO assigned tasks to the volunteers and provided the money to pay for the tickets.
Regulations
In China, rail tickets are sold 30 days prior to a train's departure date. Passengers are required to use their ID card to register with a website called 12306 before they can purchase tickets online, but Zhao's efforts were hampered by regulations. "I could only add 15 people to my account, but under the rules I wasn't allowed to delete them to add new names for 180 days," the 19-year-old said.
To provide more help, he recruited three friends to assist him by using their accounts or those of other friends. Because departure times differ, the times tickets go on sale also vary. If tickets are sold out, potential passengers scan the app to see if anyone has changed their travel plans, returned their tickets and claimed a refund. However, because he didn't have access to a computer, Zhao had to check his phone frequently and ensure he had all the relevant information to hand when the electronic ticket window opened.
"When busy, although fully charged, my phone's battery was quickly exhausted," he said, adding that he used the app so frequently that he often opened it without thinking, even when he didn't have to buy tickets.
