Auspicious train tickets () refer to train tickets with auspicious messages on them derived from the beginning and end stations on the ticket. Messages often employ homophonic puns in both Mandarin and

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

and shuffling the order of characters to reach the desired effect. In

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, the Edmondson tickets are sought by collectors and people wishing for good luck.

History

In 1973, an

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

television show in

Obihiro, Hokkaido is a Cities of Japan, city in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Obihiro is the only designated city in the Tokachi Subprefecture, Tokachi area. As of July 31, 2023, the city had an estimated population of 163,084. The next most populou ...

, Japan reported that tickets from Kōfuku Station and Aikoku Station carried an auspicious meaning. The ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' of the two characters could be interpreted as "happiness" and "country of love", respectively. The two stations then saw a surge of tourists seeking the tickets. In 1993, after preservation work was completed at Bao'an railway station, the

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) was a governmental agency in Taiwan which operated Taiwan Railway from 1948 to 2023. It managed, maintained, and operated conventional passenger and freight Rail transport, railway services on of track. Pa ...

(TRA) sought to promote the historic station for tourism. Railway researcher Ming-xun Hsieh () proposed that the TRA sell special edition tickets from Yongkang railway station. Hsieh was inspired by the Kōfuku–Aikoku ticket's success in attracting visitors and believed the same strategy would work in Taiwan as well. The ticket's characters, when read in a clockwise fashion, read "Yongbao Ankang" (), which meant "peace and health forever." The ticket became an unexpected hit and started the practice of collecting auspicious train tickets. The Yongbao Ankang tickets saw a surge of popularity on 9 September 2010. Tickets in Taiwan are printed with the date and time when entering the station. Since the year 2010 is year 99 on the

Minguo calendar The Republic of China calendar, often shortened to the ROC calendar or the ''Minguo'' calendar, is a calendar used in Taiwan Area, Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. The calendar uses 1912, the year of the establishment of the Republic of Chi ...

, the printed "99-09-09" was seen as especially auspicious since nine (九) is pronounced the same way as (), the character for "long time". The limited edition tickets, which were printed on thicker paper, sold out very quickly.

Types

References

{{reflist Luck Railway culture