January 31: Chinese New Year!
Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year.
A railway station is packed with passengers on January 28, 2014 in Guangzhou, China.
Mechanics perform a check on a high-speed train as railways
across China prepare for the holiday rush on January 7, 2014 in Xi'an, China.
across China prepare for the holiday rush on January 7, 2014 in Xi'an, China.
Passengers prepare to board the trains that will eventually take them home
for the Spring Festival on January 26, 2014 in Beijing, China.
for the Spring Festival on January 26, 2014 in Beijing, China.
A toddler waves a train ticket, excited to be part of the world's largest human migration.
Shanghai on the eve of the Chinese New Year.
Known as the largest human migration, over three billion people take to the rails during Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival. Many are migrant workers who left their rural hometowns in search of employment in larger cities. The race to get home started long ago, with train tickets selling out months in advance. The journey home is infamously arduous and passengers face overcrowded railway stations and cramped train quarters.
More than 800,000,000 (eight hundred million) people travel for the Lunar New Year.
World get ready: This year 100 million Chinese travelled abroad. The number will double to 200 million by 2020.
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