That figure means the city is predicting an 8.96 percent increase in travelers during the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which falls on the first day of February this year.

Government officials seem confident the city is prepared for the flood of passengers during the approaching holidays.

"Our transportation capacity can now well meet the great passenger volume, which had once been a bottleneck during peak travel seasons," said Wu Nianzu, deputy secretary general of the Shanghai municipal government yesterday at a meeting about Spring Festival traffic.

Shanghai's three railway stations alone will add 74 temporary trains to their regular schedules and introduce a total of 308 trains into service during the period.

Railway officials said they expect to move 4.4 million passengers during the period, an increase of 5.8 percent over the same period last year.

About 2 million people are expected to take to the road between Shanghai and other cities, which is a jump of 8 percent from last year, according to Shanghai Land Transport Administration.

To cope with the heavy load, some 9,686 vehicles, providing a seating capacity of 80,000 every day, will be put into service.

While most of the 495,000 migrant workers and 105,000 out-of-town college students are limited to traveling by bus and train to save money, many of the city's white collar workers will start their holidays off with a trip to the airport.

"I have booked a plane ticket to return to my hometown. As I can only go home the day before Spring Festival due to my busy work schedule, I'd rather choose plane to avoid being packed tightly in train compartments," said Cai Yue, an accountant originally from Shandong Province.

Airlines are expected to see the biggest increase in passenger volume this year, with 1.54 million people expected to fly into or out of the city, 26.8 percent more than in 2002.

Airliners are busy planning additional flights to accommodate passengers.

For instance, Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines will operate a total of 576 additional and chartered flights during the period while the other local carrier Shanghai Airlines Co. Ltd. has planned 300 additional and chartered services.

The local mass transit system is also gearing up to handle the influx. A total of 14,600 buses will be put into service each day during the period, and special lines will be introduced during the peak period to railway stations, airports and docks.

Altogether 49 metro trains and 46,000 cabs will be put into service.

While busses, trains and planes will be full during the peak period, local ships are not expecting a busy year. Passengers travelling along the Yangtze River and by sea to coastal cities will be down by 9.56 percent, following a slump of 44 percent last year, officials said.

(eastday.com January 10, 2003)