"Train tickets bound for the distant places like Anhui Province, Chengdu of Sichuan Province and the northeastern part of China have already been sold out," said Wang Lushan, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Railway Station.

Tickets for destinations like Chengdu, which is home to a great deal of migrant workers, were sold out within two hours after the administration began to sell tickets eight days ahead of departure.

To ease the long queues and meet the continuously rising demand, Shanghai Railway Administration opened 10 extra ticketing counters on Tuesday, five days after they increased the usual 184 ticketing windows to 196, and it's operating more than 25 extra services every day.

However, travelers bound for neighboring cities like Suzhou and Hangzhou shouldn't be worried since there are enough services while the passenger volume is relatively small.

Harbin, a tourist city in northeastern China, has become a popular destination for local travels due to its annual snow and ice festivals.

Both railway ticket salesmen and plane ticket agencies reported feverish sales heading there.

"Local residents who'd like to go to Harbin can only get airplane tickets for flights before January 29, but must act quickly, since seats between January 29 and Feb-ruary 7 have all been booked," said Zhao Hong, general manager of Shanghai Guangfa Air-ticket Service Co. Ltd.

"Sanya and Haikou in the southern tip of China are another two destinations most-desired by local travelers due to their warm weather," Zhao said.

Except for top tourist destinations such as Hainan Island, plane tickets to most parts of the country are still available, "but passengers have to buy much more expen-sive tickets than usual as air carriers offer less discounts (during the festival)," said the manager.

(eastday.com January 23, 2003)