China's Ministry of Railways expects a travel peak from Feb. 11 to 20 when about 7 million students across the country return to school by train for the spring semester, sources with the ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry urged local railway stations to reserve sufficient tickets of hard seat for the students.

According to the ministry's statistics, post-festival student flow reached six million in 2005, while it will reach seven million this year.

At present, only a few students have returned to schools. In the ten days from Jan. 29 to Feb. 7, about 1.49 million student tickets have been sold.

The ministry said it will continue to take preferential policies for the returning students. Major stations have been urged to open special ticket selling offices for students and additional temporary trains should be launched.

Students are mainly bound for Beijing and Shanghai as well as the provinces and regions of Guangdong, Liaoning, Shandong, Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Henan, and Heilongjiang.

This year's Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "Spring Transportation", began on Jan. 14.

During the 40-day peak season from Jan. 14 to Feb. 22, a record number of over 2 billion passengers, including migrant workers, students and tourists, will travel to and fro by train between cities for purposes of family reunion and tourism.

Source: Xinhua