CNY travel rush builds at the West Kowloon High-speed Rail Station

Here in Hong Kong, similar sights of bustling crowds at the West Kowloon High-Speed Rail Station.

Some citizens have begun returning to their hometowns on the mainland ahead of the Lunar New Year, while others came to buy tickets for the Spring Festival holiday.

With two weeks to go before the Chinese New Year, travellers could already be seen at the West Kowloon High-Speed Rail Station with some opting to head home ahead of the peak period.

This passenger says she had not returned home for several years, so she would stay longer up north this time. As tickets for the Lunar New Year's Eve went on sale, queues could be seen at both self-service and manual ticket offices.

Many say tickets were very hard to come by online, prompting them to try their luck at the station.

This woman says she arrived as early as 6:30 this morning even though ticket sales only began at 10:15 a.m, meaning a wait of around four hours.

This man says it was virtually impossible to get tickets on his phone and he was still logged into the online queue system while waiting at the station.

Mainland authorities noted earlier that both online and in-person ticketing channels help cater to passengers using different purchasing methods.

Ticket release times also vary between stations. The MTR Corporation has arranged for passengers, departing from Hong Kong and the mainland to line up separately.

This woman says it takes almost an hour to queue, it was a bit tough, but luckily she was able to secure a ticket.

Another passenger suggested issuing queue tickets, instead of requiring people to line up physically.

She also described the awkwardness of having to apologise to people behind her just to leave the line briefly to use the toilet.