CCTV error leads to hundred of calls to govt hotline

China Central Television erroneously stated the national railway ticket hotline number on a news program, resulting in hundreds of calls by people who wanted to book tickets to a Beijing government phone number, Xinhuanet.com reported on Monday.

In a CCTV news program on Friday, the national railway ticket hotline, which is 95105105, was mistakenly stated as 96105105, which is the governmental hotline for Beijing's Chaoyang district.

"All the calls we received in the past several days were for booking tickets," said a staff member responsible for receiving calls to the district's governmental hotline.

She added that operators would explain to callers that they dialed the wrong number and asked them to call the right one.

According to the report, the hotline of Chaoyang district government was called hundreds of times on Friday and Saturday. The frequency of the calls started to drop on Sunday.