Expect local breakdowns near railway stations as the Jing enters the "critical period" today in intercity rail transport. The "big two" — Beijing Railway Station and the Beijing West Railway Station — will be home to the masses making their way out of the Chinese capital as February 13, 2010, which is seen as the start of the Spring Festival Holiday, draws near.

Scary stats for you: that's just about 400,000 passengers per day. That's an easy million in just 3 days. From now (February 10) through the 12th, we'll see just about every last non-Beijing soul pull out of the capital in a train.

Oh and by the way, if you're in for some last-minute ticket scalping, you just might catch the attention of one or more of the 300 railway cops out to get you. Although the Jing hasn't been part of the real-ID system, the cops can still tell a scalper by the extra fare to be paid: if surcharges are over CNY 5, that's a scalper and — boom. That's just about it.

From experience, very few travellers are on the move on the last day of the lunar new year since most intercity trains take a fair bit to reach that village out in what's supposedly the middle of nowhere. The Beijing-Tianjin Intercity express is a major exception. Your Beijingologist just might do that one of these days. (Hey, it worked last year!)