China targeting rail ticket scalpers
'Yellow bulls' find big business for New Year
BEIJING -- Chinese railway authorities have launched an all-out attack on ''yellow bulls" in 5,700 train stations nationwide, a century-old Chinese term for ticket scalpers.
''Even the cooks on our trains have been called to the front lines to fight yellow bulls," said Jiang Zhanlin, director of the Railway Ministry's police department. ''We're prepared to fight as long as it takes."
The Railway Ministry has announced a Blue Shield Action campaign against yellow bulls as Chinese New Year, the busiest holiday of the year, begins today. The ministry boasted it had caught 2,110 of these ''sharks" as of Tuesday in what has been billed as a 69-day campaign.
In other preparations for today's celebrations, the government placed about 4,000 firefighters on standby, with 21 fire engines and 129 firefighters dispatched to the most densely populated areas of Beijing, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
Despite the best efforts of police, yellow bulls are thriving. They are clamoring, however, for a bigger supply of tickets.
''Business isn't great, but only because I can't get enough tickets to sell," said one ticket scalper as she stood in front of Beijing Station offering a $56 ticket to Hefei for $93.
''I could sell so many more if they were only available," she added. Two police officers looked on impassively from 5 feet away.
The central problem is a yawning gap between supply and demand. China's holiday season sees two or three desperate passengers for every seat.
Whenever 1.3 billion people decide to do anything in lock step, systems shudder.
Specialists estimate that Chinese will take 2 billion long- and short-distance trips during the New Year's period, 100 million more than last year. And for most migrant workers, trains are the only way home.
That leaves ample room for yellow bulls to make a fortune. Jiang acknowledged the problem is not easy to wipe out.
A study by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences released this month estimated there were 10,000 yellow bulls around Beijing's two main railroad stations, ranging in age from 14 to 77.
During the Chinese New Year, the study found, top-earning bulls pulled down as much as $360 a day, a windfall in a country where the average annual income is about $1,000.
