The long road home

Think your holiday rush is bad? Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year. And with it comes the world’s largest human migration. More than 230 million migrant workers will journey from the cities to their homes in rural China.

An estimated 3 billion trips will be made during the holiday. The rail system alone will handle 5.9 million trips a day. And the numbers will grow as more people move to urban areas for work.

For many, this means days lining up for tickets, often for standing-room-only rides that can last over 24 hours. It’s an arduous and uncertain journey.

But for the migrant workers who only see their families once a year, it’s worth it.

That’s what it means to be a family.