With the Spring Festival, which begins Jan. 29 and ends Feb. 4, barely weeks away, air and train tickets are in great demand.

¡°Tickets to some tourist destinations are selling like hot cakes, for example, tickets to Lijiang on Jan. 27 have already been sold out, and there are only three seats available Feb. 3,¡± said Long Wangyang, an ticketing agent with Tehang Air.

The situation is largely caused by the paucity of flights between Shenzhen and Lijiang. A random survey carried out Wednesday by the Shenzhen Daily found that from Jan. 26 until Feb. 5, there were only full-price air tickets available at most travel agencies in Shenzhen.

However, passengers heading for Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing and northern China cities have little cause for worry, as there are a number of airlines operating flights from Shenzhen to those places. Travelers can thus avail of discounts ranging between 20 and 30 percent, according to Tian¡¯an Air Ticketing Service. Some agencies even offer complimentary travel insurance to lure customers traveling on the abovementioned routes.

Meanwhile, the local communications bureau and Shenzhen Aviation and Transportation Association (SZATA) have reminded customers to buy tickets from legally registered agencies, so as to avoid being cheated. ¡°Those ads handed out by vendors are not trustworthy, customers should watch out,¡± a spokeswoman of the SZATA said.

During the Spring Festival last year, more than 40 passengers were found carrying fake tickets. Customers who have been sold fake tickets, or suspect they have been sold fake tickets can refer to the two organizations for help at 8213-6753 and 8213-6710).

Three train ticket reservation hotlines have been made available by Guangtie Railway Group today to tackle the upcoming Spring Festival travel period, which is from Jan. 14 to Feb. 22.

Passengers can book tickets up to 10 days in advance of the journey, from today through Jan. 23. Reservations after Jan. 24 should be six days prior to the planned trips.

For passengers departing from Shenzhen and West Shenzhen railway stations, the hotline number is 95105160.

The commission fee for each ticket will be five yuan, which is to be paid upon issuance of the ticket.

Tickets can be collected from the reservation offices, or by mail via the post office¡¯s EMS service (the service number is 11185). However, tickets booked using student IDs, soldier certificates, Hong Kong and Macao resident certificates, and foreigner passports can only be picked up from special windows at the railway station.

The railway company is advising passengers to avoid traveling between Jan. 20 to 27 due to large crowds during that period. The company is also reminding people to only book tickets via the hotlines or at authorized booking centers.

To book tickets for trains departing from Guangzhou, East Guangzhou, North Guangzhou and Foshan railway stations, passengers can call 95105105 between 8 a.m. to midnight. For departures from East Dongguan, Huizhou, Meizhou and Shantou stations, the hotline number is 95105106.

Editor: Yan