2015年CRI National Railway's Test Become Intellectual Challenge: Ticket Buyers

National Railway's Test Become Intellectual Challenge: Ticket Buyers

With the Spring Festival Holiday right around the corner, huge numbers of people are already going online, booking train tickets for the most important vacation of the year. However, the recently updated image Captcha system on 12306.com, china's one and only official online ticket selling platform - seems to be giving everybody a hard time, as the questions are too difficult.

It's been reported that only 8 percent of users pass the test on their first try and 27 percent get it right on the second time.

The image recognition test is required both when logging in and when buying the tickets. Most users say they've lost their desired ticket after taking too long to pass the test while others complain it is annoying how difficult the questions are.

"I've got it wrong so many times. After I finally pass the test, the ticket I want is sold out."

"The picture looks like neither turtle nor trionyx. It is a waste of time for me to try figuring out which pictures are what!"

The test requests users to find certain item, sometimes more than one, from listed photos. What makes it difficult is that it usually requires users to distinguish between very similar items, such as oranges and tangerines or between a bus card and a credit card.

Also, some of the pictures contain objects that simply aren't common anymore - kerosene 1 lamps, sewing machines, and typewriters - and many users, especially younger ones, are not at all familiar with these antiques.

While the website allows users to keep trying until they pass, if one fails too many times, the system will automatically upgrade into harder mode.

A screen save of the image recognition test of China’s online rail tickets booking system. The test requires users to choose all the Chinese traditional New Year paintings and whales from the fuzzy columns. [Photo: screen save]

According to a customer service telephone operator of China Railway, the new system is designed to prevent auto 2 logins or malicious 3 purchasing by machines.

"We've been using a picture recognition system since early this year, as it is a very effective tool to stop ticket scalpers and software from purchasing large number of tickets and reselling them at a higher price to make a profit."

He adds that some software can identify simple verification, which they used before, 1,000 times per second while the new system has no such problem so far.

It is estimated that people will make 2 billion or more trips during the Spring Festival period, and predicting that around 30 million of those trips will be made by train.

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.