Shan Xinhua, the "Mastermind" Behind 12306: From System Crashes to the World's Largest Ticketing System

Shan Xinhua, the "Mastermind" Behind 12306: From System Crashes to the World's Largest Ticketing SystemHave you received a text message about 12306? Who is Shan Xinhua? The story begins with 12306.

Shan Xinhua, the "Mastermind" Behind 12306: From System Crashes to the World's Largest Ticketing System

Have you received a text message about 12306? Who is Shan Xinhua? The story begins with 12306... Over a decade, 12306 has transformed from a crash-prone ticketing system into the world's largest railway ticketing system. This achievement is due to the tireless efforts of countless technology professionals, and Shan Xinhua, chief researcher at the China Academy of Railway Sciences, is hailed as the "mastermind" behind it. She and her team have overcome countless technical challenges, providing convenient and efficient travel services for hundreds of millions of passengers.

From the system crash during the 2012 Spring Festival travel rush to today's peak daily visits exceeding 50 billion and daily ticket sales exceeding 20 million, what challenges and breakthroughs has Shan Xinhua and her team experienced? This article delves into the legendary story of this "railway heroine," exploring the technological innovation and human touch behind 12306.

01 From System "Crash" to the World's Largest Ticketing System: Challenges and Breakthroughs

The 2012 Spring Festival travel rush was a severe test for the newly launched 12306 online ticketing system. Millions of peak-time access requests overwhelmed the system, causing it to "crash." A torrent of criticism poured down on Shan Xinhua and her team.

Building an online railway ticketing system is far more difficult than most people imagine. Take the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway as an example. There are 24 stations between Beijing and Shanghai, and passengers can board or alight at any of them. This means each ticket can have up to 276 different variations. If a train has 1,000 seats, just that one train could generate tens of thousands of different ticket combinations. Furthermore, passengers can book, refund, and change tickets at any time. The system needs to synchronize and update data in real-time with thousands of offline ticket windows nationwidean astronomical amount of data.

The 2012 Spring Festival experience became a profound lesson for Shan Xinhua and her team. After immense pressure and hardship, Shan Xinhua made a firm decision: they must build a system that satisfies the entire nation!

The 2013 Spring Festival was a crucial test for the 12306 system. Shan Xinhua and her team members once again stood guard in the command center, anxiously monitoring system operation data. When the system successfully withstood a peak daily sales volume of 3.641 million tickets, everyone present was moved to tears.

This success was the result of countless sleepless nights, the team's relentless innovation, and their groundbreaking application of technologies like asynchronous transaction queuing to railway ticketing.

Today, 12306 has grown into the world's largest ticketing system, handling over 50 billion daily visits and over 20 million daily ticket sales. It efficiently serves the travel needs of Chinese people who can "go on a trip whenever they want."

02 The Pursuit of 1.5 Seconds: Determination in Independent AI Development

In 2017, railway e-ticket reform officially launched, with Shan Xinhua and her team conducting pilot tests on the Hainan Ring Island High-Speed Railway. However, the new system encountered new challenges: passengers using paper tickets could pass through the gates in 3 seconds, while those using facial recognition with their ID cards faced long queues due to slow facial recognition speeds.

This pilot test made Shan Xinhua realize the key issue: only by independently developing AI technology could they fundamentally solve the problem of slow facial recognition speed.

Shan Xinhua's team began to tackle the challenge, innovatively using facial recognition and parallel data computing methods. After several months of intensive research, they finally reduced the average time for passengers to pass through the gates to 1.5 seconds, halving the time compared to the traditional "ticket insertion" method.

At midnight on June 20, 2020, all ordinary speed train stations nationwide silently completed the system switch, marking the full entry of China's railway passenger service into the e-ticket era. This marked a technological breakthrough by Shan Xinhua's team, bringing a more convenient travel experience to hundreds of millions of passengers.

Since then, the international-minded railway ticketing systems developed by Shan Xinhua's team for the China-Laos Railway and the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway have successfully gone global, adding luster to the "brilliant business card" of Chinese high-speed rail.

03 From a Mountain Village: A Single Ticket and a Lifetime of Pursuit

Shan Xinhua was born in a mountain village in Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province. She clearly remembers the first train ticket of her life at the age of 17, which took her out of the mountains and into a wider world.

This small train ticket opened her connection with the railway. Now, she has dedicated her youth and talent to the railway industry, using her efforts to enable more people to conveniently travel by train and achieve their dreams.

Shan Xinhua and her team are not only committed to improving the efficiency and convenience of the 12306 system but also continuously expanding service functions, launching air-rail and rail-water transport services to help passengers solve transfer and interchange problems between high-speed rail, airplanes, and ferries. They have also launched the "12306 Poverty Alleviation Mall," helping over 5,000 agricultural products from 306 regions in 25 provinces find market access, contributing to rural revitalization.

Today's 12306 not only provides efficient and convenient ticketing services but also offers a comprehensive range of travel services including food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment, providing a truly comprehensive travel solution for passengers.

On December 9, 2024, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conferred the title of "Role Model of the Times" on Comrade Shan Xinhua, praising her as a "railway pioneer who empowers the construction of a strong transportation nation with technological innovation." Her story is not just a legend of technological breakthroughs but also a story of dedication, perseverance, and dreams, inspiring more people to dedicate themselves to technological innovation and contribute to national development.

Shan Xinhua's life, like the 12306 system she helped build, is constantly iterating and upgrading, constantly breaking through self-limits, ultimately becoming a model that leads the times and serves the public. Her story will continue to inspire more people to strive for the dream of a strong transportation nation. A thousand sails race, a hundred oars compete, blooming along the way, finally reaching the dream

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