More than 30 local police officers were recently selected to begin training in techniques to recognize and combat pickpockets inside railway stations, in a move to safeguard travel during the busy Spring Festival travel period, according to Wang Haijiao, from the Beijing railway police bureau.

As of Tuesday morning, they had already detained 14 alleged pickpockets since Dec 29 and solved 14 cases, according to Wang.

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Organized by the Beijing railway police bureau, the training classes will last for 10 days until Jan 9, and involve both theoretical lectures and on-the-spot drills.

To ensure the training quality, two experts have been invited to share their experiences and guide trainees through the on-the-spot drills.

One of the experts, Yang Jinshun, 52, has been doing the job for 21 years during which he has detained more than 1,000 suspects. He said the main challenge is that the public often doesn't take the thefts seriously.

"When I catch thieves and ask for help from the owners of the lost property, they just ignore my request, saying that they are in a hurry. As if it was nothing for them to lose several hundred yuan," Yang said.

The trainees have already discovered for themselves that the work poses some knotty challenges aside from the public's indifference.

For Li Peng, the challenge is the fact that many pickpocket nowadays have been studying the police's working patterns to avoid arrest.

"For example, pickpockets of the same group used to live together, but now they all live separately even without phone contacts and only see each other during an operation," Li said. "After the action, they'll immediately spread out."

However, he said that the training has reminded them to think from the perspective of a pickpocket.

Xu Xiaoqing, one of the female trainees, believes that female officers enjoy a natural advantage in that suspects often ignore them even when being closely followed. But Xu said that there are still challenges to be faced.

"Such as the lengthy outdoor work, the messed-up daily schedules and the sometimes fierce physical movements," she said.

All trainees will go to work after Jan 9 when Beijing will start to see the early signs of what is often described as the world's biggest migration.

"We are thinking about making the program an annual event," Wang said.