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On the first day of peak travel period identified from Jan. 14 to Feb. 22, transportation across China is slightly strained but in good order.
Beijing's two major railway stations are expected to carry 200,000 passengers Saturday, fifty to fifty percent in the Beijing Railway Station and the Beijing West Railway Station.
An estimated 14.38 million passengers, an increase of 390,000 year-on-year, will travel by train in railway stations of Beijing, during the 40-day peak season around the Spring Festival, or China's Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 29 this year.
The Beijing West Railway Station will have a daily flow of 130,000 passengers while the Beijing Railway Station will see a daily number of more than 200,000 from Jan. 18 to 28.
To ease the traffic tension, the two railway stations will altogether increase 84 pairs of temporary trains, in addition to their 159 pairs of regular trains, a practice also adopted in the previous years.
In south China's Guangdong Province, passengers by train recorded 260,000 Saturday. the Guangzhou Railway Station increased 30 pairs of temporary trains while the Guangzhou East Railway Station added 11 pairs by Saturday to alleviate the tension in transportation.
Guangdong together with its neighboring provinces has had a large passenger flow for years. About 20,000 buses have been also arranged to go to factories, schools and building sites in the area for passengers to take buses easily.
In Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, local railway administration reported a flux of 85,000 students on the first day of the peak period, during which 84 special trains for students will be added.
China predicted that its highway network will carry a massive 1.855 billion passengers during the season, up 3 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, waterways will transport 28 million passengers, up 1.5 percent year-on-year.
The Three Gorges reservoir area will receive 580,000 passengers during the peak season, according to local shipping administration. From Jan. 14, passenger liners have priority in passing Three Gorges Lock.
The Ministry of Communications has urged local transportation departments to make security a priority. Overloading vehicles remains forbidden though a large amount of freight and passengers need to be carried. More than 600 coastguard vessels will patrol waters around the clock during the peak travel season. The ministry will also provide information about roads that will be affected by bad weather through TV and the Internet.
Millions of Chinese, including migrant workers, college students and others working far away from their hometowns, rush home for a family reunion during Spring Festival each year, an important occasion for Chinese families, similar to Christmas in the western countries.
For years, the nation's transportation system has been strained in the festival season, as millions of migrant workers and other Chinese flock back home and then return to the workplace in just two or three weeks.
Passenger flow throughout China will hit 2,042 billion persons in the 2006 Spring Festival period, up 3.1 percent over the corresponding period of last year.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2006)
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