610 million train tickets sold in two weeks before Spring Festival
610 million train tickets sold in two weeks before Spring Festival
With millions of travellers taking the long way home due to high demand
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China’s Spring Festival travel rush this year has seen the largest number of people travelling since the zero-Covid policy was dropped on 8 December, 2022.
Known as chūnyùn 春运, it’s the world’s largest annual human migration and lasts for more than one month:
The 2024 Spring Festival travel rush starts on 26 January and ends on 5 March, a total of 40 days.
The Spring Festival holiday in 2024 is from February 10 (the first day of the first lunar month) to February 17 (the eighth day of the first lunar month), a total of 8 days.
2024年春运自1月26日开始至3月5日结束，共40天。2024年春节假期从2月10日（初一）至2月17日（正月初八），共8天。
New Year's Eve (除夕 chúxī), which is the most important day for families to come together, fell on Friday 9th February this year.
But it wasn’t officially a holiday in China, meaning many people were forced to leave travelling home to the last minute if their employer didn’t break early.
Demand for train tickets was high.
Tickets for the festive period went on sale on the 12th of January. In just two weeks, 610.8 million tickets were sold for travel during the Spring Festival period, a 159% increase on the previous year.
The official ticketing app is the 12306 platform, run by China Railway Group (中铁集团).
Updates to the app this year allowed travellers to pre-fill their information for faster booking when tickets went live.
According to data released by the company, daily sales on the app peaked at nearly 19 million during the run up to New Year, with daily website visits reaching over 6.2 billion.
People preparing to return home compared prices of high-speed rail tickets, hard and soft seat slow trains, as well as flights, many times per day.
"Ticket-snatching apps" (抢票软件) were popular in the last two weeks.
To use "ticket-snatching apps," users have to pay in advance. Once the tickets are released, the apps will act as a "purchasing agent" to automatically snatch tickets.
To use an analogy, it's like everyone is waiting at a virtual train station, queuing to buy tickets for the Spring Festival. With the app you spend a bit more money to hire a few people to queue for you at different windows, so you can get tickets faster.
抢票软件的原理，就是需要用户提前付款，放票的时间一到，平台作为“代购”就会自动抢票。相当于大家都在一个线上版的火车站，所有备战春运的人都在排队，现在你只要花钱，就可以雇几个人多占几个队伍，多排几个队，最后看能在哪个窗口最先买到。
Other travel apps had their own in-app purchases or extensions, known as "accelerators" (加速包), which serve the same purpose.
News reports describe anxious travellers queuing through as many as seven ticket-snatching apps, as well as directly on the 12306 platform.
Personal stories circulated on WeChat blogs of travellers taking circuitous journeys to get home in time New Year’s Eve dinner (年夜饭).
Originally, all I had to do was to get to the nearest high-speed rail station and then take a long-distance bus to get home.
Now I have to change my plan and turn to travel platforms for different options.
Among the options provided, the cheapest might require me to stand for 3 hours; another one offers a seat for the whole journey, but I have to make a pointless detour, taking the route of a triangle on the map of China before being able to reach home.
原本只要坐到离家最近的高铁站，再搭一班长途汽车就能到家，现在只能变更计划，转向求助旅游出行平台。给到的方案，一个是最便宜的，需要坚持3个小时无座。一个是全程有座的，但需要走不少“冤枉路”，至少在中国地图上走出个三角形才能回家。
Do ticket-snatching apps and accelerator extensions actually work?
China Railway Group says they do not. But that hasn’t stopped millions of people paying extra through them for the comfort of standing better chance of getting home in time.
So that's what we explore this week!
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Favourite Five
1. 乡愁 xiāng chóu
homesickness
回到亲人身边，是很多异乡打工者最眷恋的一缕乡愁 - For many of the homesicked who work in a different city, all they want is to return home to be with their family. [1]
Related:
发愁 fā chóu - worry, be anxious
2. 攻略 gōng lüè
tactics, guide
米花给爸妈抢了8年票，查过很多攻略，知道哪个软件更容易候补成功 - Mi Hua has been helping her parents grab train tickets for 8 years, so she has read many guides on how to do it and knows which app makes it easier to get off the waitlist. [2]
3. 冤枉路 yuān wang lù
pointless detour
一个是全程有座的，但需要走不少冤枉路，至少在中国地图上走出个三角形才能回家 - One option offers a seat for the whole journey, but I have to make a pointless detour, taking the route of a triangle on the map of China before being able to reach home. [1]
Related:
冤枉钱 yuān wang qián - ill-spent money, wasted money
4. 心惊肉跳 xīn jīng ròu tiào
heart pounding with anxiety; frightened, startled
从自己家成了网红城市以后，回家的机票价格就一天比一天让人心惊肉跳 - Ever since my hometown became a popular city, I’ve watched in panic as the flight home goes up in price day by day. [1]
5. 耐着性子 nài zhe xìng zi
have patience
米花觉得委屈，还是耐着性子解释——别人可能是坐票，我想抢最快的、21个小时就能到家的Z290，卧铺比较难 - Mi Hua felt wronged but still patiently explained: Others may only manage to get tickets with a seat, but I want to grab the fastest one, the Z290 sleeper train which takes only 21 hours to get home, and the tickets with a bed, which are relatively difficult to get hold of. [2]
Consuming the Conversation
Useful words
6. 抢票 qiǎng piào
scramble for tickets
有钱没钱，抢票过年 - Whether you have money or not, you have to scramble for train tickets if you want to get home for Chinese New Year. [1]
Background: This is a play on the common saying: 有钱没钱，回家过年.
Related:
难抢 nán qiǎng - hard to snatch, difficult to grab
7. 异乡 yì xiāng
foreign land
异乡人常常从一个月前就计划这场出行 - People who live away from home often plan this trip a month in advance. [1]
Related:
返乡 fǎn xiāng - returning home, going back to one's hometown
8. 漂泊 piāo bó
to drift, to wander
回家过年，是很多异乡漂泊者的执念 - Going home for the New Year is a must for people who live away from home. [1]
Related:
北漂 běi piāo - people who have moved to Beijing
深漂 shēn piāo - people who have moved to Shenzhen
9. 焦灼 jiāo zhuó
anxious, fretful
回家的心情是迫切的，春运抢票的环境是焦灼的 - They long for home, but the tickets home are difficult to come by as everyone scrambles for them. [1]
Related:
心慌 xīn huāng - nervous, flustered
10. 候补 hòu bǔ
on the waitlist
刚更新的好时段车票就在半小时内被迅速抢到“候补” - The newly released tickets for prime time were gone within half an hour and you could only get on the waitlist. [1]
Related:
余票 yú piào - remaining tickets
11. 黄牛 huáng niú
scalper, ticket tout
老家朋友给她推荐了最古老的“黄牛抢票法”，并传授心得 - A friend from her hometown recommended the oldest "scalper ticket-snatching method" to her and shared their experiences.
Three character phrases
12. 打水漂 dǎ shuǐ piāo
to throw money away, to waste money
声势浩大的“保障套餐”让150块钱打了无声水漂 - 150 yuan went down the drain as they purchased the "guarantee package" that boasted many services. [1]
13. 碰运气 pèng yùn qi
to rely on luck, to take a chance
孙岩决定去线下碰碰运气，工作日的线下火车站里还没有春运来临的迹象 - Sun Yan decided to try his luck offline, since there was no sign of the Spring Festival travel rush at the train station on a weekday. [1]
14. 拗不过 niù bú guò
unable to persuade
他拗不过工薪阶层的爸妈，他们还是不愿坐高铁或软卧 - He couldn't persuade his working-class parents, who still refused to take the high-speed train or soft sleeper. [2]
Idioms
15. 摩拳擦掌 mó quán cā zhǎng
rubbing one's hands in anticipation, eager anticipation
无数打工人对着车票日程表摩拳擦掌 - Countless migrant workers checked the train ticket timetable in eager anticipation. [1]
16. 雪上加霜 xuě shàng jiā shuāng
to add frost to snow, to make matters worse
心情雪上加霜，尤其是发现抢个票还给自己抢了一份腾讯视频会员和火车模型 - I was even more upset as I realised that in addition to grabbing a ticket, I accidentally paid for a Tencent Video membership and a model train. [1]
17. 胜券在握 shèng quàn zài wò
victory is assured
妈妈不懂，认为抢票是胜券在握的 - Mom mistakenly believes that she will definitely get the tickets. [2]
18. 火冒三丈 huǒ mào sān zhàng
to be furious, to be extremely angry
“一怒叠着一怒，火冒三丈”，米花说自己那一刻要疯了 - "As so many things added up, I was fuming," Mi Hua said she was about to go crazy at that moment. [2]
19. 不欢而散 bù huān ér sàn
to part on bad terms, to end unhappily
一涉及到钱，沟通常常不欢而散 - Whenever money is involved, the conversation often meets an unhappy end. [2]
20. 鸡毛蒜皮 jī máo suàn pí
trivial matters
家里鸡毛蒜皮的事都要她出面，觉得只要她读了大学，什么都能办到 - She has to deal with all the trivial matters at home, as her parents feel that she can handle anything since she has graduated from college. [2]
Phrases
21. 旧岁新春 jiù suì xīn chūn
transition from the old year to the new year
至少我们在旧岁新春交替时成功回家过年收获团圆 - At least we managed to go home and reunite with our family as the old year transitioned into the new one. [1]
Note: A more common way to say it is: 辞旧岁，迎新春.
22. 不计成败 bú jì chéng bài
regardless of success or failure, regardless of outcome
买出行软件里的加速包，是用户们不计成败的自愿选择 - Many people voluntarily bought the accelerator in travel apps, even though they knew success is not guaranteed. [1]
23. 错峰过年 cuò fēng guò nián
to celebrate the New Year at off-peak times
买票的时候发现那几天余票紧缺，原来大家都打着错峰过年的主意 - When buying tickets, he noticed that there was a shortage of tickets on those days. It turned out that everyone had the idea of travelling for the New Year at off-peak times. [1]
24. 最后一根稻草 zuì hòu yì gēn dào cǎo
the last straw that breaks the camel's back
今年除夕不放假，成为击垮众多打工者的最后一根稻草 - Not having a public holiday on New Year's Eve this year became the last straw that broke the camel's back for many people who work away from home. [1]
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