Twenty-four post offices in Beijing began selling train tickets, providing another way to buy tickets during the Spring Festival travel rush, Beijing Times reported Friday.

People wait in line to buy train tickets at Xidan Post Office, Jan 13, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 24 offices will stay open until 10 pm every night, four hours longer than other ticket agents, said Wang Xiaodong, vice-general manager of Beijing Post Co.

The new ticket outlets, most of which are located in the city’s suburbs, are expected to help migrant workers during the peak travel time, Wang said, as many of them live in suburban areas and don’t know how to use a computer or have no Internet access to book tickets online.

Migrant workers’ difficulty in getting train tickets during the Spring Festival period was brought into the media spotlight when Huang Qinghong, a migrant worker from Chongqing, slammed the online ticket booking system in an open letter to the Ministry of Railways after he failed to get a ticket after waiting in line for days at the railway station.

Post offices in Beijing also sell air tickets and concert tickets, Wang said, and they also provide information about flights through a messaging service.