8 Strange & Sad Stories of Spring Festival Travel
8件怪异却透着心酸的春运回家故事

The compelling photographs and accompanying descriptions illustrate the incredible difficulties that many people have encountered trying to purchase train tickets to travel home for the Spring Festival holiday during the past few years.
下方的图片和附带说明描述了这几年许多人在春节时为了买到回家的火车票遇到的难以想象的困难。

While travel during Spring Festival is notoriously chaotic, it could be said that the rush to purchase train tickets for this period is even crazier. Although new measures have been implemented during the last few years to help alleviate the stresses of buying tickets and getting home, the pre-holiday period is still not without its share of stories about sold out tickets and people dealing with it in unusual and extreme ways.
虽说每个人都知道在春节时坐车很混乱了，但不得不说的一点是，当你冲去买火车票时才会见识到何谓更疯狂。虽然这些年已经实施了帮助缓解春运购买返乡票的压力的新措施，但节前用极端不寻常的方式对应票售罄状况的故事层出不穷，一起来看看他们的分享吧。 

1) This is how you fit seven people into a five-person car
   这是让七个人挤进五人车的方法

A family of seven was preparing to head from Qinghai Province back to their hometown in Dali County, Shanxi Province for a funeral but the train tickets were sold out. With no other option, they opted to drive their own taxi instead. When the car was stopped by traffic police on January 13, 2013, the officers discovered two nine-year-old children curled up in the trunk.
一个七口之家准备从青海回到陕西大荔县参加葬礼，但火车票早已售罄。他们别无他法只能选择开他们自己的出租车启程。当车在2013年1月13日被交警拦下时，警官在后备箱内发现两个九岁的孩子蜷缩在里面。

2) The unspoken drawback of online purchasing
   网上购票无法言说的的弊端
  
Wang Keding and his wife were waiting in the ticket hall of the Hefei Railway Station on January 19, 2013, hoping that tickets would be available the next day. Wang, a 39-year old migrant worker from rural Sichuan Province, doesn't know how to use the internet so was unable to book his tickets online. Unsurprisingly, tickets sold out quickly and he and his wife have had no choice but to head back to the railway station every night after work to try again. This was their seventh straight night waiting in the ticket hall.
2013年1月19日，王克定和妻子在合肥火车站售票大厅内排队购票，他们希望明天会有余票。王是一名39岁的来自四川地方的打工者，他不知道怎么上网所以不会在网上订票。不出意外的，票很快就卖完了，而后他和妻子只能每晚返回火车站再试试。这已经是他们第七个在售票厅排队的晚上了。

3) What do you mean ticket scalping is illegal?!
   倒卖火车票到底是非法还是有合理性的，你如何看待？
  
A young married couple was arrested in Foshan on January 9, 2013. Their crime: helping migrant workers purchase train tickets to return home for the Spring Festival Holiday. The arrested man's elder sister told reporters that her brother had told her about his impromptu business venture—purchasing tickets for migrant workers for a 10 RMB commission. "I had no idea that this was illegal, and neither did he," his sister said. According to a local police officer, the couple will spend the holiday in jail.
一对年轻夫妇于2013年1月9日被逮捕。他们的罪行是：帮助外地工人们买回家过春节的火车票。被捕男人的姐姐向记者讲述他弟弟的临时生意——收取十元的委托费帮外地工人们买火车票。她说：“我不知道这是违法的，他也是。”地方警察透露，这对夫妇会在监狱里过节。

4) When nature calls…
   当特殊需求来袭……
  
On January 5, 2012, a woman waiting in line for hours at the Chengdu North Railway Station to purchase a train ticket was faced with an awful decision to make: go find the bathroom and lose her place in line or relieve herself in public in front of thousands of people. Hopefully she succeeded in purchasing a ticket.