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Foreigners' view on Spring Festival travel rush

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UPDATED :February 11, 2018

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Editor's note: The 40-day-long chunyun, or Spring Festival travel rush, is underway. About 2.98 billion trips are expected to be made during the world's largest annual migration. Foreign readers share their opinions on the Chinese chunyun.

GhostBuster (Expat in China)

The long wait for a simple family reunion has commenced. With warmth in heart, soul, body and mind, each of them rushes home for a simple gathering. This massive exodus is witnessed annually! All the rushing will lessen as more high-speed train tracks, expressways and air routes will be made available. You will see it and enjoy the smooth, safe ride home for family reunion.A train from Shanghai to Chengdu, Sichuan province, departs from Shanghai Railway Station on Jan 25, 2018. The Spring Festival travel rush will begin on Thursday. (Photo/VCG)

A train from Shanghai to Chengdu, Sichuan province, departs from Shanghai Railway Station on Jan 25, 2018. The Spring Festival travel rush will begin on Thursday. (Photo/VCG)

expatter (Expat in China)

Most people around the world would never be able to envisage this mass movement and the fact it can actually happen. It is actually an amazing feat getting so many home.

People ride motorcycle on a road in Jinjiang, Fujian province, Feb 1, 2018. (Photo/Xinhua)

slimpanda (Singapore)

Malaya does not have a culture like China, where all return home for reunion. It is still a small figure compared to China, Japan or even Thailand. That is why China is constructing more speed trains and connecting rails in every city, but it's not an easy feat. China is huge and requires a lot of money to develop such things.

Passengers prepare to check in at Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2018. (Photo/Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

seneca (Expat in China)

I recognize the old way of traveling in China easily. Those green cars got extremely crowded. Men smoked endlessly; windows stayed open, although you made a point about closing windows to keep passengers out. The worst was they were not heated in winter and not cooled in summer. A trip from Beijing to Guangzhou would take 36 hours, then 24, but throughout such journeys the passengers had to keep their winter clothes on throughout the trip.

Today it's a piece of cake. Everyone has a seat, the windows stay permanently shut, as an interior air-conditioning system keeps the temperature comfortable. There are rubbish bins and the journeys take hours rather than days.

A bullet train leaves Jinan West Railway Station in east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 31, 2018. (Photo/Xinhua)

robert237 (US)

In the US Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time, followed by Christmas. It's always more expensive and crowded to travel during those times. If you don't mind crowds, it's just part of the experience. If you don't like crowds you can always stay home. It's sort of self-limiting that way. The worse it gets, the more people will decide to stay home.

A little child waits for the train at Fuzhou Railway Station in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province, Jan. 31, 2018. The 40-day spring festival travel rush will start on February 1. (Photo/Xinhua)

Source: chinadaily.com.cn

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