China CNY exodus begins
Massive holiday migration as millions travel home for festival
BEIJING: The world’s largest annual migration of people officially began in China with millions of travellers boarding public transport to journey across the vast country for Lunar New Year celebrations.
The government estimates the number of passenger trips on trains, planes, boats and buses will reach 3.2 billion during the holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, up 9.1% from last year.
At a train station here yesterday, hundreds of travellers wheeling suitcases and carrying bags stuffed with clothes and instant noodles queued at temporary ticket booths or filed through security barriers to wait for their trains.
University students surnamed Liu and Bao were changing trains in the capital as they travelled from the southwestern province of Guizhou to Inner Mongolia in the north – a journey of more than 40 hours.
Despite the long distance, the pair said they were happy to be going home to celebrate with their families.
The public security ministry urged travellers to be wary of “harsh weather” conditions, with fog, rain and snow forecast in parts of the country during the festival travel season, which ends on Feb 16, Xinhua news agency said.
Millions were left stranded during the 2008 Spring Festival after the most ferocious winter weather in at least five decades froze key sections of the transport network just as vast numbers of people were heading home.
Although the week-long holiday officially begins on Jan 23, demand for tickets is high many weeks in advance, with migrant workers desperate to return to their home villages and towns queuing for hours, even days, to buy tickets.
Gui Yurong, who sells clothes here, said it took her 10 days to buy a ticket to her hometown of Jixi in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang – a 22-hour journey.
A new online system designed to make it easier for people to buy train tickets for the holiday this year has been overwhelmed by huge demand from millions of travellers across the country.
Many flooded social networking sites to vent their anger at spending hours trying to access the new system, only to find that tickets allocated for that day had already sold out. — AFP