Police said Thursday they seized 16,000 fake railway tickets in a single operation earlier this month, as railway tickets are in short supply due to an upsurge in travelers going home for Spring Festival family reunions.

Police across the country also confiscated 13,254 tickets from unauthorized ticket dealers during the two-week long nationwide operation beginning Jan. 2. The tickets are valued at 1.5 million yuan (US$18,000), according to statistics released by the country's Railway Police Bureau.

The police detained a total of 4,339 people suspected of fabricating fake railway tickets and dealing in tickets without authorization.

The nationwide crackdown came as tens of millions of Chinese people are traveling home by train to reunite with their families during the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, which starts on Jan. 22.

About 800 police in Beijing have detained 1,640 illegal ticket dealers, while police in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, south China, seized about 10,000 railway tickets from unauthorized dealers and 7,195 fake tickets.

Police said most of the illegal dealers were released after being fined while the remaining were detained facing criminal charges of fabricating railway tickets and minor offenses.

Chinese travelers, mostly migrant workers and college students, will make an unprecedented 1.89 billion journeys by bus, train, air or ship during the peak travel season, which starts on Wednesday, according to estimates by the ministries of railways and communications.

Railway passengers are expected to make 137 million journeys during the peak season that lasts 40 days, 2.7 million more than last year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2004)