Railway police hunt scalpers as holidays approach
Xinhua, December 11, 2015 Adjust font size:
The railway police have detained 85 ticket scalpers in the first two weeks of a nationwide campaign targeting ticket hoarding ahead of the Spring Festival holiday.
The 100-day operation, "Eagle Hunt 2016," began late last month and will run until early March.
Spring Festival, which next year will fall on Feb. 8, is a peak travel period across China as millions return home to see their families.
More than 6,000 train tickets and over 12,000 fake tickets have already been confiscated, and police are keeping a watchful eye over activities at railway stations and across online booking sites.
In 2015, some 295 million people traveled by train during the holidays. The movement of millions across the country puts a particular strain on railway services and a chronic headache for authorities.
The situation is exacerbated by scalpers buying up tickets to resell for a profit.
Last year over 3,800 train ticket scalpers were detained and more than 192,000 tickets or purchase vouchers were confiscated in last year's railway safety campaign, according to police. Endite