January 16, 2009
Tens of millions of people in China’s cities are queuing up in the winter chill in the hopes of getting a ticket back home for the holidays. But there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to obtain that red piece of paper.
Hu Jintao sympathizes. Today’s newspapers reported that the president issued instructions to the railway ministry yesterday: “Use your brains to find out solutions to solve the problem.”
Following Hu’s instructions, a meeting was held for ministry officials at one o’clock this morning. Although Minister Li Zhijun pledged to improve service to “satisfy the people,” “solutions” are unlikely to come any time soon.
In other train-ticket-buying-related news, at a press conference yesterday, the railway ministry apologized to railway passengers for “hurting their feelings” and promised to investigate allegations of improper ticket sales.
The apology came after a video clip surfaced showing a railway ticket assistant holding back newly printed tickets despite the protests of people outside the window. The clip enraged many viewers, who saw it as evidence that ticket clerks, and maybe the station itself, was trying to profit by withholding tickets from legitimate customers in order to sell them to scalpers for higher prices.
The ministry previously explained that the incident was a misunderstanding caused by new measures introduced to improve efficiency: pre-printed tickets are supposedly distributed to ticket counters so that purchasers don’t have to wait for a clerk to wrestle with the ticketing computer. The problem with these tickets is that they are generally for the entire route, meaning that anyone wanting to get off at an intermediate stop ends up paying more than they should.
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Hu Jintao instructed on the ticket issue
- Earlier on Danwei: How to get a ticket home for the holidays