Tens of millions of people travel back to their hometowns during the Chinese New Year for family reunions. (Photo : www.kristinbairokeeffeblog.com)
Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi has proposed a new alternative to conventional transportation for the tens of millions of Chinese who are planning to travel back to their hometowns during the Chinese New Year for family reunions.
Didi said on Thursday, Nov. 26, that people can car-pool home instead of taking overcrowded trains, buses or airplanes on their way to their hometowns for the coming Chinese New Year.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that the government had started selling tickets on Thursday for trains scheduled to leave from Jan. 24 to March 3 next year. The 40-day period is known in China as "chunyun," the time when people travel back home to celebrate the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 8 in 2016.
According to the report, authorities have been putting more trains in service during the peak travel season each year, but still there are people who cannot get a train ticket and be able to go home.
The report said that during this year's "chunyun" period, the country's train service had completed 295 million trips.
Didi's ride-sharing service dubbed Hitch has been upgraded to match traveling needs not only within one city but also across the country, which would enable drivers to take on others when traveling home for the Chinese New Year, the report said.
Didi's inter-city hitch service, which was first launched during the seven-day National Day Holiday in October this year, has made trips that went as far as 2,673 km and lasted as long as 60 hours.
The ride-sharing services, however, may not interest people taking shorter train trips. According to Didi, most of the inter-city trips done in October were within 100 km, while 20 percent of the trips included areas between 100 and 300 km.
