Citizens head off for a break

2008年05月04日 浙江在线新闻网站

AN ESTIMATED 220,000 people travelled to and from Shanghai by train and more than 30,000 on long-distance buses yesterday.

The most popular destinations for the holiday crowds were Suzhou, Wuxi in Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province and Beijing.

Some expressways, including the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway and Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, were gridlocked from 8am yesterday and the jams did not clear until after 2pm. Some drivers reported long waits at toll stations from as early as 7am.

There were 21 ticket offices selling day-of-issue tickets at the Shanghai Railway Station and another 11 ticket offices open at Shanghai South Railway Station.

A record 30,000-plus passengers were expected to pass through the Shanghai South Long-Distance Bus Station yesterday. The station said all buses were full. At one stage yesterday buses were leaving for Hangzhou every three minutes and were expected to carry a total of 3,000 passengers there.

On Wednesday the bus station dealt with 26,000 passengers.

With the opening of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge last night giving a shortened travelling time from Shanghai to Zhejiang Province, the station expects to see an increase in the number of passengers heading to Zhejiang from today.

On Wednesday, 3.83 million people traveled on the Metro, breaking the record for daily passenger totals for the seventh time this year. Shanghai Metro Operation Co laid on 21 trains and prepared more than 20,000 extra tickets to meet demand.

Local tourist sites proved popular, with 25,343 people visiting them from the Shanghai Sightseeing Bus center.

Statistics from the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission showed 26,000 people visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower yesterday and about 43,000 people went to Century Park.

The Jinjiang Amusement Park and the Shanghai Wild Life Park also reported a more than 30 percent increase in visitors.

Budget hotels groups Green Tree Inn and Home Inn offered their usual rates, with some 199 yuan (US$29) rooms still available by 5pm yesterday.

A spokesman for Motel 168 said most of the chain's 168-yuan rooms had been taken.

来源： Shanghai Daily 作者： Chen Qian 编辑： 侯玮