Homesick Faces on the Way back Home

The annual Spring Festival travel rush is a terrifying annual phenomenon where tens of millions of people travel across China back to their hometowns. In the rush, individuals are like ants, waiting for hours then squeezed into boxes, sometimes hungry and cold. After such a trial, the reward is a week of continuous eating and drinking amongst family members, games of Mahjong lasting late into the night, and kids running around asking for their lucky money.

Fortunately, road and rail conditions have considerably improved between major cities and customer service is a concept slowly making its way into railway and bus stations. But although the long travel back home is gradually becoming more endurable, the memories of crowded train stations or a standing ticket for a 30 hour-long journey will remain forever a symbol of the hardship one must endure to return to his family.

Thousands of passengers queue to enter the railway station waiting room



Foreigners waiting outside the railway station



A man looks through the window of the train





Passengers falling asleep in the waiting room.





"Run, the train is leaving."





The "Long Wait" is difficult for families with children



Security guards watch over the square in front of the railway station

(By Jessie Huang, David Keyton, photos by Guangzhou Daily)

Source: Lifeofguangzhou.com

Editor: Jessie Hwang