Migrant workers flood Guangdong
Thousands take advantage of the lifting of a long-standing ban on recruiting
Migrant workers from all over the country have been pouring into Guangdong in search of work since the provincial authorities lifted the ban on large-scale recruiting at the start of the new lunar year.
Trains travelling to the southern province have seen a marked increase in the number of passengers from Sichuan , Hunan and Chongqing since Wednesday, the first day of the Year of the Rooster, according to Xinhua.
Guangzhou's railway station was expected to handle 70,000 arrivals yesterday, nearly double the figure recorded on Saturday.
The early start to the post-holiday rush came after the Guangdong authorities lifted a restriction on employers who want to hire new workers from outside the province within a month of Lunar New Year.
The lifting of the ban, which had been in effect for years, was believed to be an official response to the recent province-wide labour shortage that emerged last year.
Official provincial statistics earlier showed there would be a million vacancies for semi-skilled workers this year.
Workers were rushing to the province because they feared they would miss out on jobs, as hundreds of thousands of people were expected to flock in after the holiday, the agency said.
They also wanted to avoid the higher ticket prices during the next peak period, which started after the week-long New Year holiday officially ended tomorrow, it added. The annual holiday rush for migrant workers is expected to peak again from February 23 to 28.
Guangdong is not the only region to have been hit by a large number of migrant workers flocking to cities in search of jobs right after the annual holiday.
More than 20,000 people arrived in Shanghai by bus on Friday from nearby provinces including Jiangsu , Anhui and Hubei , the China News Service reported.
A Shanghai transport department official said several hundred buses had been allocated to bring in migrant workers, with up to 60,000 people expected to arrive in the city every day during the next few days. Train traffic has also increased steadily in Beijing during the past few days, but was still significantly lower than that seen before the New Year.
Railway officials in the capital said the city handled more than 265,000 passengers on Saturday, 5,000 more than the previous day, another Xinhua report said.
Mainland railway officials said the mainland tourism industry had surged over the holiday, with tourist attractions throughout the country reporting increased number of visitors at the weekend.
Hotel occupancy rates over the holiday week in main tourist cities such as Xiamen , Sanya and Guilin were above 70 per cent, with the occupancy rate in Wuxi hitting 90 per cent.
Statistics from railway authorities showed 19 million railway trips were made on Saturday, compared with 3.34 million on Friday.
To cope with the soaring demand for transport, the authorities added 228 trains to the daily services, while 8 million railway workers were on duty during the holiday.
The railways authorities have also warned travellers to avoid the peak periods, when the country's underdeveloped railway system struggles to cope with millions of workers and students.
