Chinese police have arrested more than 2,000 train ticket scalpers and have broken up 1,000 gangs that made and sold counterfeit tickets as the country enters its peak travel season leading up to Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 18.

More than 47,430 tickets, with a face value of 5.64 million yuan (720,000 U.S. dollars), have been confiscated by police, according to the railway public security department.

Some 50,000 policemen have been on duty at railway stations, on trains and at ticket booking offices all over the country to crack down on illegal ticket dealings.

The Ministry of Railways announced earlier this year that railway ticket prices would not be raised as they usually are during the 40-day-long holiday season which this year runs from Feb. 3 to March 14.

This is expected to cause a big jump in the number of train travelers and is also attracting more ticket scalpers.

In China, rail is the most popular means of travel as 156 million passengers are expected to travel by train during this year's holiday season.

Some scalpers were offering fake tickets which they were selling for seven to ten times their face value.

Cui Xihua, an official of the Beijing railway public security department said, China's train ticket scalpers first appeared in the 1980s. Nowadays ticket scalpers are using text messages and the Internet to advertise and sell ticket, said Cui.

Source: Xinhua