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Spring Festival: Trains, planes and a mass migration
Although the Chinese New Year is still weeks away, the mass passenger movement is on already as people return to their hometowns for the holidays
Crowds pack into the Shanghai train station to secure their ride home over Spring Festival. Image from Flickr user Remko TanisThe Chinese New Year isn’t until mid-February, but many are taking off sooner rather than later, bringing an early start to the Spring Festival mass migration. On January 30, an estimated 150,000 people left the city to return to their families for the holidays.
Shanghai Daily reports that across China, approximately 2.54 billion journeys are expected to be taken over the next 40 days, up 7.7 percent from last year. Shanghai itself will see a large number of these passengers. It is estimated that 25.63 million passengers pass through the city by rail, plane, bus or ship during the 40-day surge.
If you are still not convinced that Chinese New Year madness is heading towards full throttle, make your way to Plaza 66, Shanghai's premier luxury mall on Nanjing Xi Lu, where the gaudy gold Christmas season decorations have gotten a bit of a makeover, going red for Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. We're not sure we'll call this holiday decoration recycling exactly "green," but we will say well done to Plaza 66 for getting as much use out of their holiday decorations as they can with this Spring Festival innovation.
