A Glimpse of Chinese Spring Festival Migration

[AndrewJin]

Prologue
Now, a lot of Chinese are on their way from the interior of China back to costal cities where they work, which we name as ‘Chunyun’, i.e., Spring Festival Transport. For 2015, the goat/sheep year’s one officially commenced on 4 Feburary and will end on 16 March. I have successfully invited some of my friends to join PDF and post their own experiences and photos of going home.

One of them is studying in Nanjing, he took a train to Wuhan where he interchanged to an intercity to his hometown in eastern Hubei Province. Another is working in a town of Dongguan, a major manufacturing hub where she took an intercity to Guangzhou and transferred to a train to Yueyang of Hunan Province and finally boarded a local bus back to her county which is by the Yangtze River. Then, my fellow Wuhanese who is working in Beijing will depict his Beijing-Wuhan journey . And finally a new Beijingnese will show you his journey to rural Hebei Province.

It is beyond my capablity to show every aspect of this epic migration of Chinese so that we sincerely encourage every one who has your own story to post here. Before our first story, I’d like to give you a holistic impression about their routes by maps.

p.s. I've posted my previous journey back home however the time was a week prior to the officially recognised starting day of Spring Festival Migration.
My CRH trip from Shanghai back to Wuhan

 

[Aepsilons]

Wonderful thread @AndrewJin -sama !

 

[AndrewJin]

Wonderful thread @AndrewJin -sama !

Thanks Nihonjin!
From developed costal region to less developed interior, I think these routes are quite representative of this migration.

 

[Aepsilons]

Thanks Nihonjin!
From developed costal region to less developed interior, I think these routes are quite representative of this migration.

Very interesting. One can actually conduct sociological-based research just on studying a cohort in how their migration from one part of China to another part , can study how language (dialects), educational background, and social support structures can predispose to success or at least find any correlation to that dependent variable (or not, in the event we have to accept the null hypothesis).

I guess one thing i've never thought of is how these train systems , or overall transportation systems in China, can pave the way to a neo-migration dynamic in China especially from the countryside to the urban areas. Notwithstanding one can see a miscegenation of cultures as Northern Chinese come down to the south (and vice versa; Southern Chinese go to the North) or Easterners going to the west to find greater opportunities. And with this migration, can change the local culture and dynamic!

Really interesting stuff.

 

[AndrewJin]

Very interesting. One can actually conduct sociological-based research just on studying a cohort in how their migration from one part of China to another part , can study how language (dialects), educational background, and social support structures can predispose to success or at least find any correlation to that dependent variable (or not, in the event we have to accept the null hypothesis).

I guess one thing i've never thought of is how these train systems , or overall transportation systems in China, can pave the way to a neo-migration dynamic in China especially from the countryside to the urban areas. Notwithstanding one can see a miscegenation of cultures as Northern Chinese come down to the south (and vice versa; Southern Chinese go to the North) or Easterners going to the west to find greater opportunities. And with this migration, can change the local culture and dynamic!

Really interesting stuff.

Well said Nihonjin. An epic in human history every year. I will always remember and appreciate those are still working to make sure the majority's journeys for home. You will truly find a great case of miscegenation in my My Adventures Across China about a gathering of people around China a week ago in Xiamen, Fujian (the main figure is an Indian who is working in China).

Concerning the transport, the main theme is CROWDED, CROWDED, CROWDED which will be seen in my friends' posts. The golden line Changsha-Guangzhou(one of the main directions for workers going to workplace), I've just checked, tomorrow will have 175 trains(54 slow, 121 D/G trains), but still, some have to resort to cars, buses and airplanes without any discount for this season. And for Nanjing to Shanghai 276 trains(199D/G&77slow). That's why infrastructures are so crucial to China, still far from being reckoned as adequate.

 

[birdy]

Story one: Back home(Nanjing-Wuhan-Huangshi)
By Sunny

Hi, I'm Sunny. I am now a graduate student in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and just ready to embrace my last winter holiday.
Here, I would like to share my story with you which happend on Jan 10th, 2015. It's an about 550km's journey which will take me back home in Huangshi, Hubei province.

Chapter 1
The picture below shows the route from Nanjing to Huangshi.

To be specific, I have to take a D-class HSR from Nanjing South Railway Station to Wuhan Railway Station(3 hours and 10 mins) and then transfer to Huangshi North Railway Station(40 mins), because Wuhan as a provincial capital, is the traffic hub for central China, including Hubei province.
This article includes some details which describe the dailylife of local people in China. If it makes you feel bored, I'm really sorry for that.

Ready to start off.

You can see the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum at the top of the mountain when it's cloudy. Sorry for the low image qulity.

7:45 Am on the street.

Street pats

Take metro line 2 at Xiamafang station

Buy ticket, 4 yuan

Free newspapers are available

On the subway

You can tell that not all Chinese are playing with their phones, they do read. Haha, just joking.

 

[AndrewJin]

Welcome aboard Sunny. or shall i call you birdy???
Your descriptions are very detailed and far beyond my anticipation

 

[birdy]

Story one: Back home(Nanjing-Wuhan-Huangshi)
By Sunny

Chapter 2

Transfer to metro line 1

Reaching Nanjing South Railway Station

Migrant workers, or peasant workers are rushing to the exit with big burden on their shoulders.

The arrow points at the way to Nanjing South Railway Station.

More pics of migrant workers

Checking out

Turn right and take the escalator, the railway station is just above my head.

 

[Aepsilons]

Hi, I'm Sunny. I am now a graduate student in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and just ready to embrace my last winter holiday.
Here, I would like to share my story with you which happend on Jan 10th, 2015. It's an about 550km's journey which will take me back home in Huangshi, Hubei province.

Ni Hao Ma Sunny ! @birdy !

Thank you for sharing with us your travel story back home to Huangshi! I've never been to Hubei before, but I would love to visit someday , your pictures are wonderful please share more of your experience with us who are so interested in the everyday life of Hubei-ren. Anyways, welcome to PDF !

Xie Xie!

 

[AndrewJin]

Ni Hao Ma Sunny ! @birdy !

Thank you for sharing with us your travel story back home to Huangshi! I've never been to Hubei before, but I would love to visit someday , your pictures are wonderful please share more of your experience with us who are so interested in the everyday life of Hubei-ren. Anyways, welcome to PDF !

Xie Xie!

Have you met the same problem of internet? I couldn't get access to PDF for several hours

Ni Hao Ma Sunny ! @birdy !

Thank you for sharing with us your travel story back home to Huangshi! I've never been to Hubei before, but I would love to visit someday , your pictures are wonderful please share more of your experience with us who are so interested in the everyday life of Hubei-ren. Anyways, welcome to PDF !

Xie Xie!

Hubei is where the 1911 Revolution took place, a province of pioneering spirit .Most of Chinese generals during wartime came from Hubei and Hunan( hu means lake, Hubei=north to the lake, Hunan=south to the lake, within a single province before)

 

[Aepsilons]

Well said Nihonjin. An epic in human history every year. I will always remember and appreciate those are still working to make sure the majority's journeys for home. You will truly find a great case of miscegenation in my My Adventures Across China about a gathering of people around China a week ago in Xiamen, Fujian (the main figure is an Indian who is working in China).

Concerning the transport, the main theme is CROWDED, CROWDED, CROWDED which will be seen in my friends' posts. The golden line Changsha-Guangzhou(one of the main directions for workers going to workplace), I've just checked, tomorrow will have 175 trains(54 slow, 121 D/G trains), but still, some have to resort to cars, buses and airplanes without any discount for this season. And for Nanjing to Shanghai 276 trains(199D/G&77slow). That's why infrastructures are so crucial to China, still far from being reckoned as adequate.

Ni Hao Ma @AndrewJin !

Wonderful! I really appreciate your thread and that of @Yizhi 's New Year Thread because for me it just reinforces how very similar we Japanese are with Chinese people. An essential theme i've noticed in brother @Yizhi 's New Years Thread is that may Chinese members were focusing on food that they ate with their families, either it be hot pots, noodle soups, fried food, desserts, to various wonderful drinks --- delicious really! --- and the emphasis of being with family and one's extended family. I do remember talking with some of my Chinese friends here in the United States and one thing they say is that during Luna New Year , this is the period where there is a net massive migration of Chinese people going back to their hometowns and home villages to be with family.

I love it really because it is the physical manifestation of 孝 being observed by the people of East Asia !

Please let me share with you something very similar in Japan. In Japan, we celebrate New Years, too, however, one festival or event that dominates most of the people's activity is one that is called 盆踊 Obon , or Bon Odori. It normally is celebrated in a span of 3 days and starts around July 15. During this period, which we call Bon Week, everyone from Japan goes back to their hometowns, or home villages, to spend time with family and most importantly to visit the shrine of our ancestors. We perform the Bon Odori or the Bon Dance , wherein we literally invite the spirits of our ancestors to dance with us, invite them back to our homes where they are served and offered food and drink, the traditional style. Afterwards, we then lead them back to the family shrines where we offer them our obeiscance and wish them love and ask for their continued blessings. This is a festival and a practice that all Japanese part take, irrespective of religion. But yes, Bon Week is usually means Shinkansen lines in Japan are jam packed as literally over 100 million Japanese are traveling back to their hometowns. Every town, every village all over Japan perform the Obon dance ....its just so wonderful time !

Some pictures of 盆踊,

Have you met the same problem of internet? I couldn't get access to PDF for several hours

Yes! Same problem. Hopefully it is okay now...

 

[powastick]

I could sum the Malaysian's Chinese New Year migration in one picture.

From 3 hours became 6 hours.

Malay politicians celebrating Chinese New Year.

 

[Aepsilons]

I could sum the Malaysian's Chinese New Year migration in one picture.

From 3 hours became 6 hours.

Malay politicians celebrating Chinese New Year.

Oh man, traffic jam! its okay, because being home is worth it.

 

[AndrewJin]

Ni Hao Ma @AndrewJin !

Wonderful! I really appreciate your thread and that of @Yizhi 's New Year Thread because for me it just reinforces how very similar we Japanese are with Chinese people. An essential theme i've noticed in brother @Yizhi 's New Years Thread is that may Chinese members were focusing on food that they ate with their families, either it be hot pots, noodle soups, fried food, desserts, to various wonderful drinks --- delicious really! --- and the emphasis of being with family and one's extended family. I do remember talking with some of my Chinese friends here in the United States and one thing they say is that during Luna New Year , this is the period where there is a net massive migration of Chinese people going back to their hometowns and home villages to be with family.

I love it really because it is the physical manifestation of 孝 being observed by the people of East Asia !

Please let me share with you something very similar in Japan. In Japan, we celebrate New Years, too, however, one festival or event that dominates most of the people's activity is one that is called 盆踊 Obon , or Bon Odori. It normally is celebrated in a span of 3 days and starts around July 15. During this period, which we call Bon Week, everyone from Japan goes back to their hometowns, or home villages, to spend time with family and most importantly to visit the shrine of our ancestors. We perform the Bon Odori or the Bon Dance , wherein we literally invite the spirits of our ancestors to dance with us, invite them back to our homes where they are served and offered food and drink, the traditional style. Afterwards, we then lead them back to the family shrines where we offer them our obeiscance and wish them love and ask for their continued blessings. This is a festival and a practice that all Japanese part take, irrespective of religion. But yes, Bon Week is usually means Shinkansen lines in Japan are jam packed as literally over 100 million Japanese are traveling back to their hometowns. Every town, every village all over Japan perform the Obon dance ....its just so wonderful time !

Ni Hao Ma @AndrewJin !

Wonderful! I really appreciate your thread and that of @Yizhi 's New Year Thread because for me it just reinforces how very similar we Japanese are with Chinese people. An essential theme i've noticed in brother @Yizhi 's New Years Thread is that may Chinese members were focusing on food that they ate with their families, either it be hot pots, noodle soups, fried food, desserts, to various wonderful drinks --- delicious really! --- and the emphasis of being with family and one's extended family. I do remember talking with some of my Chinese friends here in the United States and one thing they say is that during Luna New Year , this is the period where there is a net massive migration of Chinese people going back to their hometowns and home villages to be with family.

I love it really because it is the physical manifestation of 孝 being observed by the people of East Asia !

Please let me share with you something very similar in Japan. In Japan, we celebrate New Years, too, however, one festival or event that dominates most of the people's activity is one that is called 盆踊 Obon , or Bon Odori. It normally is celebrated in a span of 3 days and starts around July 15. During this period, which we call Bon Week, everyone from Japan goes back to their hometowns, or home villages, to spend time with family and most importantly to visit the shrine of our ancestors. We perform the Bon Odori or the Bon Dance , wherein we literally invite the spirits of our ancestors to dance with us, invite them back to our homes where they are served and offered food and drink, the traditional style. Afterwards, we then lead them back to the family shrines where we offer them our obeiscance and wish them love and ask for their continued blessings. This is a festival and a practice that all Japanese part take, irrespective of religion. But yes, Bon Week is usually means Shinkansen lines in Japan are jam packed as literally over 100 million Japanese are traveling back to their hometowns. Every town, every village all over Japan perform the Obon dance ....its just so wonderful time !


Wonderful pictures indeed.
盆means basin,踊 means jump upward or a shoe of someone who is punished with Yue( strike off a foot or two). What does this word mean in Japanese?

Wonderful pictures indeed.
盆means basin,踊 means jump upward or a shoe of someone who is punished with Yue( strike off a foot or two). What does this word mean in Japanese?

 

[50cent]

Nice infrastructure

Thanks for sharing amazing pics