Most of the passengers at this time of the year are college students and migrant workers returning home for Spring Festival.

A migrant worker carries his son to make their way home in heavy snow at Yantai Railway Station of Shandong Province January 23, 2008.

People in queue to get a ticket home for the most important festvial of the year.

People rarely use the word "pleasant" to describe a journey through China during festival seasons. Instead, Chinese media are more likely to use the word "Spectacular" to describe scenes featuring large numbers of Chinese travelers heading home by train.

To be honest, majority of those poor travelers, no matter how terrible they may feel during this "Spectacular" festival chaos, would, more often than not, consider themselves lucky for at least being able to join their families for the Chinese Year celebration on the day of Chu xi (the Chinese New Year Eve).

Plenty of people may feel bad if they miss out on this opportunity because it is a difficult task to buy a train ticket or air ticket during the so called "Chun Yun", which usually means 15 days before and following the week-long Spring festival. No wonder this month, articles guiding people the best way to get train tickets gain popularity on major news websites such as MSN China, Yahoo and Sina.

          Guide for tickets hunters:

Tip 1: Get ready all the information of the tickets you intend to buy in advance including train times and fares. It is highly recommended that you write all these down on a piece of paper and pass it to the counter staff.

Mind you: Names of many places in China sound similar in dialects so always double-check before ticketing to make sure you get it right.

Tip 2: take extra cash with you before heading to the station. Train fare increases are quite common in China during the Spring festival, you would be devastated to find yourself short of cash after 2 hours queue.

Tip 3: Booking agents across the country are only allowed to charge 5 Yuan for each ticket and ticket issuing is through railway computer network therefore tickets should be valuable immediately upon confirmation.

Tip 4: Reservations for the best Z-category express trains open 20 days before departure, reservations for most other trains open up to 10 days before departure, assuming the train you want starts its journey at that station.  The rules vary by city..!