(ECNS)-- The annual "Chunyun", or "spring travel rush", will hit China soon, and ticketing service for railway trips has already started online. But it would be naive to think that it simply takes a few clicks.
If you have bypassed a "cross-verification measure" to log in to your account … Congratulations for achieving step 1!
Next, you will be asked to hit the right image as part of the login. The stage will be a challenge for both your knowledge and sharp eyes.
Challenge 1: Can you spot ALL the exhaust fans in the picture below?
Pretty easy? Just a warm-up.
Challenge 2: Can you spot ALL the recorders in the picture below?
(Maybe the first in the second row?)
Hmm, it's getting interesting, isn't it?
Then, try some difficult ones.
Spot ALL the humidifiers.
Spot ALL the lizards.
Already got sore eyes from staring at these tiny,quirky, low-pixel images? Sorry, there is always something more challenging.
Spot ALL the vases AND elephants.
Spot ALL the notebooks AND bookshelves.
Spot ALL the barbecue skewers AND cuffs.
…
Finally, after countless failures, you logged into your account (Hurray!) just to compete with tens of thousands of buyers for a single ticket. Lucky for you if there's still one available.
China's "chunyun" travel rush is one of the world's largest people migrations. A total of 295 million people traveled by train during last year's travel peak in China, according to the Ministry of Transport.
To cope with the massive flood of travelers and curb scalpers, the railway authority launched the online ticketing platform 12306.cn ahead of the travel rush in 2010. Since then, it has upgraded its security measures several times, including the image CAPTCHA system adopted last year to block third-party ticket-buying softwares.
It's reported that travelers using the platform were recently asked to complete a cross-verification procedure to bind their cellphone or email addresses with their ID-registered accounts, before they could log in to the system with these options.
The online ticketing service generates both love and hate among the public. While it saves you the trouble of long queues in front of ticket offices, the system has come across multiple problems, like crashes or info leaks. Some also complain that the security methods are too complicated, even for tech-savvy people, let alone workers with limited education or those unfamiliar with computers or cellphones.
