Chunyun And Spring Festival 2009
January 21st, 2009 by Stephen CroninSpring Festival (Chunjie) is upon us again: January 25 is New Year’s Eve, with the following day the first in the Chinese year of the Ox. There’ll be fireworks, firecrackers, reunion dinners, visits to family and friend, lucky money, the New Year’s Eve TV gala, etc. It’s a great time of year.
But what really fascinates me is Chunyun, the time around Spring Festival when everyone travels home to their hometown. It’s the largest movement of people in the world. Not surprisingly, it’s well reported in the press. Here are some of the things I’ve picked up about Chunyun 2009.
Chunyun 2009 In Numbers
- Total number of travellers: 2.32 billion
- Number of travellers by bus: 2.07 billion
- Number of travellers by train: 188 million
- Number of travellers by boat: 31 million
- Number of travellers by air: 23.2 million
Figures courtesy of the China Daily.
I guess they must count people on return trips twice when calculating the total numbers of travellers, because this figure is 1 billion higher than the population of China!
It’s no surprise that by far the most popular mode of transport is bus. The network of long distance buses throughout China is quite impressive (until you have to travel on one). It’s cheaper than train, which in turn is cheaper than air travel. It’s also easier to book tickets on a bus than on a train (see below).
The Timing Of Chunyun
As with Chunjie (Spring Festival), the timing of Chunyun changes from year to year, because the date of the Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, not the Western calendar. According to Wikipedia, Chunyun usually begins 15 days before Chinese New Year’s day and lasts for around 40 days.
In 2009, Chunyun starts on January 11 and finishes on February 19. The peak travel times should be from January 20 to 24 when everyone travels to their hometown, then February 10 to 14 when everyone travels back to their place of residence again.
This year however, the peak travel time has started earlier than expected, largely due to the many migrant workers who have lost their jobs due to global economic recession travelling home earlier than usual.
Getting Train Tickets During Chunyun
This year has highlighted the problem of getting train tickets during Chunyun. Although it’s difficult to arrange any travel during Chunyun, train travel is by far the most difficult to arrange. Being able to book your tickets more than a day or two ahead of travel is rare and the train station (or scalpers) is usually the only source of tickets.
This year, in Guangzhou, you can book tickets 4 to 10 days in advance and by telephone to boot. However, according to the China Daily, Chen Baoshan queued at Guangzhou station for two days to get tickets, while his wife tried calling the hotlines from home to no avail.
In that case, it was just a matter of waiting to finally be able to buy the tickets. In other cases, the all available tickets are snapped up quickly. For example, tickets from Shanghai to Chengdu for the next six days were sold out in 20 minutes.
Due to the frustration, many people turn to the ticket scalpers – but if you do that, you have to worry about whether the ticket is genuine. According to the China Daily, police in Guangzhou busted a gang of fake ticket makers on January 7 and seized about 60,000 fake train tickets.
If you’re travelling during Chunyun, I’d give trains a miss if at all possible!
Final Thoughts
This time last year we were living in China and were supposed to spend Spring Festival with my wife’s family, but couldn’t travel because of the terrible snow storms, which stranded millions of travellers. This year we’re in Australia, so we’ll have a quiet night, eat lots of food and watch some TV.
Wherever you are, have a great Chinese New Year. If you’re braving Chunyun, travel safely.
Tags: chunyun, New Year, Spring Festival, transport, travel
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