A freshman rode his bike home for 8 days, covering 928 kilometers

"The train was way too crowded — I couldn’t even use the restroom."

    Sun Xuewei, 20, is from Ziyang, Sichuan, and a freshman at Chang’an University. Talking about the decision to cycle home, he insists it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment idea. Last summer vacation, he and classmates traveled to Wuxi and happened to hit the peak of the summer travel season. "The train was extremely crowded — by evening, people were sleeping in the aisles, and you couldn’t even get into the restroom," he said. After returning to Xi'an, he started considering not taking the train home for the Spring Festival. Halfway through the new semester, Sun made up his mind to cycle home for the holidays. He said he first told his classmates, who admired his courage. But when he told his family, they were all against it — though his parents eventually gave in. For Sun, long-distance cycling isn’t a big deal. Since middle school, he has biked to and from school every day. In high school, he and a few friends even cycled close to Lhasa. This time, before cycling home, he told a friend back in his hometown, "He brought his bike specially to Xi’an and cycled home with me."

    From Xi'an to his hometown of Ziyang, the train takes at least 14 hours. The 928-kilometer journey from Xi'an to Chengdu would take eight or nine days by bike, with most of the route being mountainous.

    Sun looked up travel strategies online and calculated that he needed to average about 100 kilometers per day to find suitable places to stay. To avoid getting lost, he relied on his phone’s navigation. On the morning of the 15th at 10 a.m., Sun set off from school with two backpacks. On the first day, he cycled over 70 kilometers and reached Zhouzhi County, where he found a hotel to stay at.

    The rest of the trip went almost according to plan. On longer days, he would set off at 8 a.m. to ensure he arrived before dark. To save time, he brought dry food for lunch. But there were unexpected delays, such as when heading to Mian County — he got held up and by 6 p.m. it was already dark in the mountains. He was going downhill on a pitch-black road, which was quite worrying, but fortunately, nothing went wrong.

He couldn’t help but shout when he saw the "Chengdu Boundary" sign

    The hardships along the way go without saying, but Sun gained a lot. "The best part was that my repair tools weren’t needed — the bike didn’t give me any trouble," he said. What impressed him most was the winter scenery in the Qinling Mountains. "The plants were all covered in silver, and the riverbeds were frozen like glaciers." He said he had never seen anything like it and was completely awestruck. Another unforgettable moment was after crossing a valley — the sky was already dark, and the bright stars were incredible. "I’ll never forget that view in my lifetime."

    The most exciting moment for him was when he saw the "Chengdu Boundary" sign — he couldn’t help but shout. At around 8 a.m. on the 23rd, Sun arrived in Chengdu. After leaving his bike there, he took a bus for over 70 kilometers and arrived back in his hometown of Ziyang more than an hour later. "The first thing I did after getting home was sleep like a log," Sun said. Cycling home was just a small goal — his bigger plan is to continue his journey to Lhasa by bike during the summer vacation.

    Yesterday afternoon, a reporter reached Sun by phone. He said he wants to write a simple guide based on his experience cycling from Xi'an to Chengdu to help other cycling enthusiasts.

    "Cycling long distances isn’t some grand feat — cyclists do it all the time," Sun said. However, he also wants to remind those planning to cycle not to pack too much — just bring the essentials. For this trip, he carried a power bank to keep his phone charged for navigation. He had gloves and a hat for warmth, a scarf to block the wind, and goggles. It’s also best to carry a water bottle to refill with hot water at rest stops. He also packed a flashlight in case tunnel lighting failed. As for clothes, bring only what you need for changing — even in winter, cycling can get quite hot. By Du Junling, our reporter

Train tickets for the sixth day of the Lunar New Year went on sale yesterday

    The 2013 Spring Festival travel season has begun. With internet and phone ticket sales for the sixth day of the Lunar New Year opening yesterday, a new wave of "ticket scramble" has hit again.

    Staff from Shanghai Railway Bureau explained that yesterday, train tickets for the sixth day of the Lunar New Year went on sale via the internet and phone. As that day marks the peak of post-holiday return travel, tickets for that date are in extremely high demand.

Xi’an to Beijing flights start at 48 yuan
Why are plane tickets being sold at cabbage prices?

With train tickets hard to come by during the Spring Festival travel season, Du, who plans to visit Beijing for the holiday, was surprised to find that plane tickets are actually much cheaper than usual. Among them, Hainan Airlines is offering Xi’an to Beijing flights for as low as 48 yuan during the travel season.

Is it really true that plane tickets from Xi’an to Beijing are being sold at such low prices during the Spring Festival travel season?

Yesterday, reporters learned from Xi’an Xianyang International Airport that during the travel season, passengers mainly fly to destinations such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Sanya, and Haikou. Before the holiday, many flights still offer discounted tickets at 1–30% of the original price.

Among all airlines, Hainan Airlines offers the most shockingly low prices during the Spring Festival travel season. Starting January 30, it launched special tickets for Beijing flights at 78 yuan, and the price for February 9 is unbelievably low — Xi’an to Beijing tickets are just 48 yuan.

Compared to the scene of train tickets being hard to get, such low airfare prices are truly puzzling. Normally around 1,000 yuan, now tickets are just a few dozen yuan. With such low prices, how can airlines cover their costs?

A manager from the Xi’an branch of Hainan Airlines’ marketing department explained that apart from the impact of the Xi’an–Beijing high-speed rail on passenger flights, it’s common for airlines to run promotions toward the year-end. Low-cost tickets are a form of promotional strategy to reward passengers. Only a dozen or so such low-price tickets are available on a single flight, so airlines won’t incur losses.