China targets scalpers and ticket offices amid Spring Festival travel scandal

BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- China has sent five inspection teams to the country's traffic hot spot areas to tackle the ticket scalping and issuing scandal, as millions of Chinese scramble for a ticket back home for the Spring Festival, according to a notice released Monday by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on its website.

The teams will target ticket selling, a problem area identified by an official in a blog posting which has aroused national indignation.

Li Ou, vice mayor of Siping City in northeast China's Jilin province, triggered heated discussion with a blog article on the country's flawed ticket selling system.