Tang Jincheng strolled in the Hangzhou Northern Railway Station at daybreak Sunday to check if the air conditioner in the waiting room was working, and if extra tents should be set up in the square to keep travelers warm.

"Many of them wait overnight for a train ticket home," said Tang, head of the station. The temperature has dropped to minus two degrees Celsius in the eastern city.

Tang is among some 2 million railway workers in the world's most populous nation who need to work long and hard in 40 days to come: China expects 2.32 billion passenger trips during the holiday rush before and after the traditional Spring Festival that falls on January 26.

The figure is nearly three times as big as Europe's population.

Ministry of Railways estimated 188 million of these would be train trips, an average of 4.7 million daily.

On Sunday, the first day of the six-week holiday rush, the Hangzhou Northern Railway Station expects at least 10,000 passengers. Tang's job is to ensure every one of them a safe -- if not cozy -- trip home.

For most Chinese, a train ticket during the annual holiday rush is among the hardest-won commodity. Ministry of Railways has promised to ease the bottleneck by 2012 but many people question "how".

Railways Minister Liu Zhijun has projected a "historic change" in 2012 when intensive investment would extend total track mileage to 110,000 km, including 13,000 km of passenger lines on which trains could run between 200 to 350 km per hour.

Yet the scenario offers little immediate comfort: even after the extension, the per capita rail lines in China will only be 8.5 cm, up from the present 6 cm.

Photos taken at tickets sale outlets, indicating travelers waiting in line, wrapping themselves up with quilts or sleeping on the floor, were seen at major Chinese websites since two weeks ago. Some waited for three days and three nights to get a ticket.

The global financial crisis did send some migrant workers home in advance -- Beijing Railway Station claimed its holiday rush actually started on January 1. But nationwide, the impact on the holiday rush starting Sunday was seemingly little. Migrant workers, as well as many students and office workers, are eager to get home for family reunions all the same.

"I have to make the trip home. How can I keep working when my parents and children are waiting for me?" said Gou Dongyou, a migrant worker from the central Henan Province.

Gou, 53, worked at a construction site in Beijing to support his teenage son and daughter, who study at a high school in his hometown of Xinzheng.

His boss warned him of a possible wage cut, but luckily, Gou was paid every cent of last year's wage, about 2,000 yuan (US$285) a month. "That's a handsome sum for a migrant worker," he said.

Gou's friend Zhang A-long, however, is not as lucky. The 32-year-old garment dealer in Guangzhou said businesses slumped in recent months and it was hard even to make ends meet. "But I have to get home all the same, to hand out gifts for my parents, pocket money for the children and visit friends and relatives," he said. "We should all feel happy, at least for once."

Gou and Zhang are among the "early birds", having arrived home when tens of millions of people are still planning for their trips.

"We try to convince the passengers to book tickets online, make phone calls or make reservations at nearby post offices, instead of waiting days on end at the railway station," said Zhu Kaiping, head of Shanghai Railway Station.

Meanwhile, railway stations in most cities have opened extra ticket windows and set up more bathrooms to facilitate the travelers.

Nanchang Railway Bureau in the eastern Jiangxi Province have replaced at least 1,000 old, unheated train cars with air-conditioned ones. Meanwhile, the bureau's volunteers have prepared couplets, handkerchiefs and other gifts to keep the passengers "warm at heart", said Sheng Zhiqing, a chief official with Nanchang Railway Station.

The station has also set aside a bulletin board for passengers to write down their greetings for family and friends. "Beautiful hometown, strong-minded people", wrote Wu Zaibin, a first-year student at Nanchang University, of his home province Sichuan that suffered an 8.0-magnitude earthquake last year.

Police are also having a hard time patrolling railway stations, as most passengers bring cash and valuables aboard trains, making them easy targets for thieves.

In the southwestern Guizhou Province, police have even set up a temporary refuge at the railway station in Guiyang, the provincial capital, where migrants who are robbed of money are given food, drinks and eventually, a free train ride home.

"Safety is the core of the holiday rush, as well as the prerequisite for building harmony," said Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun.

(China Daily January 12, 2009)