BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- China officially plunged into the yearly Spring Festival travel rush on Sunday.

    At the Beijing Railway Station, one of the nation's biggest, tens of thousands rushed home to celebrate the annual festival with their families.

    The spectacular scene of tens of thousands of travelers flocking to ticket booths is a familiar one each year. But the queuing lines of passengers this year seems to be longer than usual.

    This year the festival falls at the same time when college students finish their exams. More college students and migrant workers are part of the crowd. Long queues can be seen at every ticket office across the city, as passengers brave freezing winds in the below-zero Beijing cold.

    Soundbite: standup of the correspondent "Today starts the nation-wide Spring Festival train passenger rush period, recording a peak of numbers of students and rural workers going home from Beijing. As you can see, the Beijing Railway Station has opened 260 windows to sell tickets. It has never been like this before."

    Soundbite: Xu Rui, Vice Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Raiway Station "The number of passengers who use the Beijing Railway Station and the South Beijing Railway Station is at 130,000 per day. The number could reach 180,000 per day in the coming days."