China Focus: Carpools catch on during China's Spring Festival travel rush

Instead of queueing at crowded railway stations or buying costly air tickets, many Chinese are opting to carpool home during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Xue Yiyi, 25, who works at a Shenzhen Internet company, plans to visit his parents at his hometown in Rongxian County, southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He will meet up with three strangers and share a 400-kilometer (250 miles) car ride home.

Getting ticket home to celebrate China's most important holiday for family reunions, which falls on Feb. 8 this year, has long been a headache for Xue. But this year, things seem to be different.

Xue found an extra seat in a private car owned by a family of three, whose hometown neighbors his through ride-hailing app Didi. Xue only needs to pay around 200 yuan (32 U.S. dollars) to share road tolls and fuel costs.

"It brings much convenience for travellers like me and will make the boring trip quite interesting. Also, it is an environmentally friendly way to travel," said Xue.

A record number of passengers are expected to travel between Jan. 24 and March 3, a 40-day period known as "Chunyun", when people travel back home to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Up to 2.91 billion trips are expected to be made via road, railway, air and water, up 3.6 percent year on year. Although authorities plan to run more trains and buses, the world's largest human migration still causes pressure on the transportation system.

In order to help eager travellers who cannot get a ticket, many websites and ride-hailing apps have rolled out carpooling services to match drivers and passengers if they are on the same route going home for holidays.

Lu Zeming, 31, who works at a hospital near Beijing, found three travelling companions from Beijing to Jilin City of northeast China's Jilin Province after he released information about ride sharing at 58.com, a Craigslist-style classified service.

Lu's white Nissan will start the 1,200-km journey at around 5 a.m. on Feb. 5. "It is not about making money. I will go home anyway. Travelling with others can save cost and make the long trip not be that tiring. Three of us can drive," said Lu.

At 58.com, more than 4,500 results offering or looking for seats to get home can be found if one searches key words "Spring Festival" and "carpool" as of Thursday afternoon.

Didi's inter-city hitch service was first launched last September. In November, it said people can carpool home during the upcoming Chinese New Year. Carpooling requests or offers can be posted 30 days ahead of their departure.

Statistics from Didi showed that the number of inter-city carpooling orders reached 580,000 between Jan. 11 and Jan. 23. It is still surging.

Around 51.5 percent of people will travel between Feb. 3 and Feb. 6 before the festival. The average trip distance is about 450 km and the longest trip is 3,577 km from southern coastal city of Sanya to northern Chinese city of Shenyang, Didi said.

Huang Jieli, general manager in charge of car-pooling services at Didi, pointed out that the current transport system cannot meet demands of all travellers during the Spring Festival travel rush. The inter-city carpooling service is a new alternative.

Even Chinese authorities encouraged "not-for-profit" carpooling services during the holiday travel rush. But Wang Shuiping, a senior official with the Ministry of Transport, warned at a press conference that vehicles should be well maintained before departure and car owners and passengers should make their rights and responsibilities clear to avoid conflicts during the trip.

To guarantee the safety, Huang said Didi carefully checks the qualification of the car owners and buys accident insurance for the drivers and passengers.

Carpooling services became popular in the United States and Europe decades ago. With the social progress and Internet development, it has gained popularity in recent years among Chinese, who were previously believed to be too shy to share a ride with strangers.

"People are more open-minded now. I do not feel unsafe or embarrassed. We are strangers, but we are going to the same direction -- home," said Xue Yiyi. Endi