Peking University, Sept. 30, 2010: Excited, students at Peking University are making travel plans for the upcoming 10-day National Holiday. But things do not go easy. They are facing the difficulty of getting tickets.

                                                                         I Want a Ticket

Jiang Yunlu is a junior from School of Economics, who comes from Jining, Shandong. She spent the whole summer holiday doing a social practice project and studying abroad as an exchange student. So she became desperately homesick and  had been planning to go home on National Day for a longtime. Sept. 20 was  the "ticket day", and she wanted to buy the cheapest one, which was easy to get at the usual time. Unexpectedly, when she arrived at the ticket center on campus at eight a.m., hundreds of people had already been queuing up for tickets and the queue stretched to the copy shop. She was surprised and upset: "When is it going to be my turn ?"Helpless she had to try her luck at another ticket office, but the situation turned out to be the same.
Back to her dormitory, she called her parents to see if they could buy her a ticket, but in Jining, tickets were sold out too. Frustrated, Jiang could only get a standing-room-only ticket from the ticket center on campus, but the train would not go straightly to Jining. Thinking of having to stand all the way and then go home by bus, she was sad with the ticket in hand, "There are so many people in China! How hard it is to get a ticket!"

Long Queue No ticket

With the National Day approaching, the once deserted Yanyuan Ticket Center was crowded from morning to night. Many students complained that they had wasted a lot of time queuing up which had affected their busy life. The ticket center at PKU is designed to meet the needs of students and teachers on campus. Though there are some ticket offices outside the campus, few students ever noticed them. Besides, a large number of people outside the university also buy tickets from Yanyuan Ticket Center, resulting in its over-crowdedness. A relevant person in charge said that no effective measure is available for the time being. In addition, the school ticket center also has some weaknesses. "Students need to get up early to buy hot tickets and the wire speed of the ticketing system is very slow."
However, students from the Railway Cultural Association told the reporter in the interview that the university has paid much attention to students' tickets-buying. "Every summer and winter vacations, the school always offers students up-to-date information about tickets.We also hope to gain more experience in the future in order to serve students better" he said.

Other Ways May Lead A Success

A student from the Railway Cultural Association mentioned that it was safer to book tickets via school before the summer and winter vacations, but at other time, students had to buy tickets themselves. In fact, there are several ticket offices near campus, such as one near the Qinqinyijiaren Restaurant outside the south gate. Few people went there throughout the day. Therefore it is convenient to buy tickets at that office and students will save much time because they do not have to wait in a long queue.
Another alternative mentioned by a member from the Railway Cultural Association is the TrafficTicket forum on BBS. To buy tickets at railway stations is also a good choice, another member suggested. Although it is risky to buy tickets there, berth tickets for students are more likely to get at the stations, which is a huge advantage over other ticket offices.

Edited by: Chen Miaojuan
Translated by: Liu Yaqing
Source: PKU Youth
URL: http://www.youth.pku.edu.cn/show_more.php?tkey=&bkey=&doc_id=2793