It’s a pretty daunting idea that a good part of 1.3 billion people will travel somewhere to visit some part of their family during this week. Travel is a huge part of Chinese New Year and it is common for shops and restaurants to close for an amount of time closely correlating to the amount of kilometers they need to travel to be with their family by Wednesday night. Some things closed a week ago, some today, some will close by noon tomorrow.
That being said train and bus travel is insane right now and I’m sure with growing populations of personal cars on the road, traffic on newly built highways will prove that it isn’t the greatest alternative (although newly added fast-track trains seem to be getting a lot of attention).
I found two interesting photo collections of travel during Chun Jie, one from Chinese media source China here and a darker (and in my opinion, more realistic) look at travel during this festive time of year here. Even though we went to Chongqing a little less than a month ago we were already starting to the crowding that happens at any transport hub during this time of year.
In other news, its official, we haven’t been whining about the cold without merit. This past January was the coldest experienced in 30 years in Shanghai and I’m pretty sure we weren’t far behind.
We’re resting up, getting ready for new year’s eve. Which is also better known as the-night-in-which-China-blows-up-its-towns-and-cities-that-have-not-banned-fireworks. Phil has been feeding his excitement for pyrotechnics by buying small boxes of fireworks at every orange tent we pass. Get ready!
mala with a fork 
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