Good news and bad news for people planning to travel domestically during the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year period, which begins next year on February 5, two weeks ahead of the February 19 holiday, and runs two weeks after. The good news is that, even though the government hasn’t announced when the Spring Festival holiday will be officially, 60-day advance purchase train tickets will go on sale December 7 (in Chinese).

This year, the Spring Festival public holiday began on January 31 and lasted through February 6, which featured a working Sunday prior to the event, and a working Saturday after. With the actual celebration of the holiday falling on the evening of January 30, quite a number of people were unamused that they didn’t have the day off for travel or preparations. Think Scrooge and working on Christmas Eve.

Anyway, the bad news is, if you’re planning on traveling domestically at that time, it will be necessary to buy tickets at that time, based on the 2014 holiday calendar. If you think there will be tickets left come February, think again. When in the last ten years has that strategy worked, in a country with far too much demand for travel and far too little supply? Make your plans, buy your tickets, and be glad you got them. Otherwise, get ready to drive or fly.

In other travel news, there isn’t much at the moment. See you Thursday.

Photo: Wikipedia