With the Spring Festival now on and it being Chinese New Year’s Eve today the Chun Yun migration of people around China began in earnest last weekend.
With many people having their only two week holiday of the year up to 700 million migrant workers try to travel back to their families for the festivities, creating over 2 billion journeys over a 40 day period, predominantly by rail.
The lack of tickets and a decent dispersal system leads to huge queues for tickets with people camping in freezing weather for days to get the cheapest prices. Scalpers try to take advantage of the mayhem and arguments and fights seem commonplace.
Chun Yun Spring Festival Migration, Guangzhou 2008 - via ChinaSmack
Over time two new factors are increasing the load on the system – the Chinese educational reforms are leading lots of students to study at universities away from their hometown and the rapid increases in personal wealth also leads many families to use the two week break to travel abroad.
For those of us left in Beijing it’s a very strange time. Up to half the cities 20 million inhabitants have left the city whilst the rest seem to be setting off firecrackers outside my apartment for 15 hours a day.
More pictures at ChinaSmack
Edit: here’s an English news video:
Its hard to imagine so many people all struggling to get on that train in 2008. I hope things have improved since then, more trains, longer trains. Wow. Its really sad to see that. Maybe staying behind in Beijing is the best answer?
The problem is that it’s the only 2 weeks that the migrant workers get off per year, so the only chance to get all the way back to see their families.
Pingback: Chinese New Year in Beijing
Pingback: What to Do in Beijing - Travel Tips for Beijing, China
Pingback: @fahadspeaks
Pingback: @ValuStrat