Australian David Brown felt completely lost in the hall of the Guangzhou Railway Station, in the capital city of Guangdong province, on Monday, watching thousands of people forming long lines to buy tickets.

Zhu Zhenghuai from Hunan province, the first passenger to buy real-name tickets for the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, shows his tickets at a ticket office in Guangzhou on Monday. [Photo: Xinhua]

"I had no idea where so many people came from, and I had heard nothing of the mass passenger transportation in China when I was in Australia," the 28-year-old said.

Earlier this month, Brown traveled from Yunnan province to Guangzhou. He is planning to leave for Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Monday. He decided to take a long-distance bus after seeing the crush for railway tickets.

On Sunday, railways stations across the country began selling tickets for the peak travel season of the traditional Chinese New Year, which lasts 40 days from Jan 19 to Feb 27.

The transport sectors and the Chinese passengers seemed to be better prepared than Brown.

Since the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important Chinese festival for family reunions, most people return home from work or study during this season, which is called chunyun in Chinese.