20 Jan 2011 – What a crowd!

Passengers queue up to board a train at a railway station. — PHOTO: AFP

SHANGHAI – THE world’s biggest annual migration of people began in China on Wednesday as millions of travellers boarded trains and buses across the country to journey home for the Lunar New Year celebrations.

The Ministry of Transport said the number of separate passenger trips on the country’s trains, planes, boats and buses is expected to reach 2.556 billion – 11.6 per cent more than last year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the week-long holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, officially begins on Feb 3, demand for tickets is so high many travel weeks in advance. The festival travel season is expected to end on Feb 27.

Most of the passengers are migrant workers who travel home to see their families only once a year for the country’s most important holiday. The number of passenger trips has risen steeply from 1.66 billion a decade ago, Xinhua said… — AFP

2. Beijing West Railway Station
5. Taiyuan/Shanxi Province Railway Station
9. Passengers from Hefei to Fuyang

All the above pix and info are downloaded from today’s ST: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_626148.html

The Chinese idiom /人山人海=people mountain people sea and the figurative meaning of this is there are a lot of people… hmmm you don’t say considering that China’s pop is over 1.3billion! Just seeing these pix is enough for the thoughts to rush back to the Appalachian Trail or any other nature trails far far away from these maddening crowds. Whoever said that two is company and three is a crowd has a very valid point 🙂