Tickets on sale for Spring Festival

Train tickets went on sale on Thursday for the first day of Spring Festival rush, the 40-day travel peak during the Chinese New Year holiday.

This year, China Railway Corp has scrapped pictorial verification checks for the online purchase of most tickets, to streamline the buying process during the rush, which runs from Jan 13 to Feb 21.

Since the beginning of last year, the railway operator's official website - 12306.com - had required users to verify a booking by selecting a photo based on a subject or question.