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As hundreds of millions of Chinese head home to celebrate the New Year with their families, the country's transportation system is struggling to accomodate nearly 3.2 billion passenger trips.
BEIJING – It’s as if the entire population of the United States took to the road several times over. During China’s “chunyun” or Spring Festival travel season, the 40-day period that began earlier this month, more than 3.2 billion passenger-trips will tax the country’s transportation system in what is thought to be the world's largest human migration ever.
On the Chinese lunar calendar, 2012 will be the Year of the Dragon, which is of special importance to the Chinese. As legend goes, the Chinese consider themselves descendants of the dragon, the only mythic creature in the Chinese 12-animal zodiac.
According to age-old tradition, the festival to greet the Chinese New Year that begins on Monday is a time for family reunions. Since millions of Chinese are migrant workers who spend most of the year separated from their families working hundreds of miles from home, the New Year holiday is the often the one time they go home.
About a quarter billion travelers will load onto China’s over-burdened rail network. Despite a new online ticketing system and hotlines, many have complained of difficulties and delays in buying train tickets. Still, for many Chinese, the ticketing problems and prospect of long ride in crowded condition are small price to pay for the once-in-a-year family reunions.
Watch NBC News’ David Lom report from the scene above.
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Been there, done that. Not fun.
If people have the opportunity to go back home more often, there would not be such pressure to do it this time of the year. NUTS.
Not true. Returning home to family for New Year is a very old Chinese tradition. It's the same here, only we do it at Christmas.
My wife is in Nanning now with her family for the holiday, and I'd be with her if I could have gotten the time off work. Last year we rode the train from Nanning to Guangzhou. There were better then 2,000 people trying to board at the Nanning train station, like a rugby scrum. All fighting to get on the train. Where everybody had a reserved seat. Crazy!
Hi Head:
There is a reason for the term "Chinese Fire Drill." Without some ropes like at the boarding line at the airport or a taxi line they are a mob.
Yes, I've been in China for more than 4 years now. Individually I have encountered immense generosity and kindness. However, there is a pack mentality that form when more than about 50 people seek a single resource. Lines are non-existent. Since the only way to get arrested is to hit first I have never seen a punch thrown, but the verbal abuse and bickering and lack of civility in these crowds is tangible. I did the trek 2 times with my fiancée' - before the ticket system which made things a breeze this year. I won't go into what a train toilet is like other than to say I could see the tracks - it was literally a squat hole welded into the floor - bring your own toilet paper.
Imagine 5 dogs and 2 dog bowls. Multiply that to 5000 people and 50 ticket windows. That is a ticket home. We stood in line for 5 hours and my fiancée had to go to the bathroom. It was like watching her go through a verbal moshpit getting back to me. At about 6.2 and a weight lifter I was a "purple dog" in the crowd and I could see over everybody as she argued her way for nearly 30 minutes to get close to me. The second she got to where I could yell and she could point to me it was like the when Moses split the Yellow Sea (no pun intended). All bickering stopped and she was granted an easy path to my hand.
Rule is nobody hits first, nobody fights one on one and saving face in front of foreigners were likely the two combining factors, but I've never seen an entire mob go silent and split and open a path like that in China in my life. I also speak really good Chinese and spared no words for those pushing my girl. I have punched a guy before. He ran and came back with 5 friends. I told them to form a line and I would fight them each individually but otherwise they were "cream puffs" would be the best translation. He yelled in my face for minute to save face but there's no such thing as a fair fight and there's no such thing as a line.
Love this place and love my job and love nearly every PERSON I have met, but in herds this place has a long way to go. The police stations post signs reminding people not to spit on the floor. Given the Beijing air I hack up too, but for God's sake - get a tissue, form a line and live with it.
In the end realize that this trip home is like watching people go through a moshpit at a Megadeth concert to get to Woodstock. All my love to you my Chinese friends, but show your fellow Chinese individually the civility that you show me individually when there are more than 50 people. It is that simple. Be who you normally are - don't let a crowd turn you into a pack dog.
It is a beautiful thing. LOVE YA CHINA - ENJOY YOUR WELL EARNED HOLIDAY WITH YOUR FAMILY. My mother bore 7 kids and there is no way all of us could be in the same room - not enough love. Love of family is genuine here. Crowd disregard for other Chinese as just a dog between you and the dog bowl is just a fact of life (not counting the elderly and foreigners and those who might be able to do you a favor some day).
PS: Please form lines
@China Expat
Great post; you tell it like it is!
Did you ever read the book "Lost in Planet China?" The author has a great description of crowd behavior in China. It's really funny to read, but a very accurate description of what it's like.
I am a 5'11"- 200 pound very strong woman and have been knocked around by 4'- 80 pound- 60 year old Chinese women
Oh yes, this is so true. I was on a bus with my wife in Chengdu and we were about six feet apart because my wife runs to get on the bus, I walk. At every stop more and more people are getting on the bus. Even when the bus was full, it kept stopping for more people. Most of us were standing and we were like sardines in a can, very tight. I'm wondering how will I get out when its time for us to get out. I don't see a way out. My wife screams at me to get out on the next stop. I yell back, I can't get out, how do I get out? I don't like to bump into people especially into women. She screams something in Chinese, and all of a sudden the people moved and there was an opening for me to walk through. It was incredible watching this. It was like a small miracle and funny to watch.
I have a question for those who have lived there recently. As the culture has become more affluent, are more Chinese workers opting to take vacations rather than visiting their families during the New Year hiatus? Also, do workers from foreign cultures get this time off as well or do they continue to work? From my personal experience, it's almost impossible to conduct business with Chinese companies during this period.
Chinese don't return to reunite with their families at Chinese New Year because they're poor. It's deeply ingrained in the culture. I'm living in this region now, too (Malaysia, which has the purest expression of Chinese culture outside of mainland China itself), and even my Chinese Malaysian friends with nice salaries drop everything and return to their hometowns for the New Year festivities. Literally every single one of my Chinese friends was gone on CNY Eve, so they could have the traditional "reunion dinner" with family. Restaurants here are booked for that night MONTHS in advance; most have two dinner seatings, too.
Everyone is off for CNY here in Malaysia -- Malays, Chinese, Indians, and foreigners. It's a major public holiday and it's two consecutive days off nationally; many Chinese-owned businesses close for the week. (Bear in mind that the CNY festive season actually lasts 15 days.) While some businesses remain open, they're virtually always staffed by non-Chinese. And just as no one expects much business to get done with the Malays during their major festive season (Ramadan, leading up to Hari Raya Aidilfitri), Chinese business slows to a crawl in the days leading up to the CNY period. It's remarkable to behold.
Great posts. We loved going to China and loved the people but your descriptions are accurate. Even in the much more orderly (and militarized) world of Chinese airports, when the gate agent says "Now boarding rows 22-30" it is just a vague suggestion.