Chunyun - the world’s biggest annual migration
Friday, 29th January 2010
On an average day in China during Chunyun, over 3.9 million people board trains for family reunions.
Chunyun, or Spring Festival Travel Season, refers to the 40 day period mass migration of people around the Lunar New Year.
The 2010 Chunyun period is from January 30th to March 10th, during which the Lunar New Year, China’s most important traditional festival for family reunion, will fall on 14th February.
Chunyun is considered the biggest annual collective exodus in the world. In 2008 alone, the number of train passengers exceeded China’s population, with the number of travellers reaching 2.26 billion. This figure exceeds the number of passengers taken by UK in the entire year.
Due the huge impact on transportation Chunyun has become a complicated social problem in China. Most Chinese middle-class citizens cannot readily afford air transport, thus the most affected modes of transport are rail and road networks.
Although for a lot of businesses Chunyun represents a quiet time of year, there’s one, somewhat unlikely, business in China that has been able to capitalise on the Chunyun period. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronical, “alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their New Year shopping list: Adult diapers.” It seems that the trains in China become so overcrowded that some travellers are even forced to stand in the toilets. Quite a vision...and probably one that’s best left to the imagination!
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Tags: chinese, china, festival, new year, food
Posted by Joshua Gabriel 2010-01 under Experience Cultures,
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