1.3 Billion Urban Exodus for the Chinese New Year!

Celebrating the Year of the Horse! Here are some pictures I collected from different articles showing the masses of people traveling this year to get home to celebrate the holiday with family.

People standing in line for days to get a train ticket home 

 

A train ticket! What everyone is trying to get their hands on! 

The red bag on this woman's back is the most common type of bag most people travel with across China

Waiting to get on the train

People pushing through the carousal to get on the trail

See how some people don't have a seat but are standing. This is called getting a 'standing' ticket. I had to do this in 2007 when I was traveling from Anhui back to Bejing about a 15 hour train ride. All the tickets were sold out for days and its all that was left. My friend and I stood overnight for the first 8 hours and then finally got a seat after some people got off early at one of the stops. An experience I'll never forget!

 

 

方便面 "Convenient noodles" The food of choice when taking a train in China! Its about a $1-2 and all you have to do is add hot water! I love eating these on the train! 

This year baidu.com (China's verison of google) mapped out a heat map showing where people were traveling to across the country. 

Pictures and map from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25911958

http://www.chinahush.com/2014/01/09/exactly-how-difficult-it-is-to-go-home-for-the-spring-festival/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-travel-nightmare-161819112.html

Renting a boyfriend/girlfriend for the Spring Festival

As time got closer to Chinese New Year this year we began asking friends what their plans were for the holiday. As the country pretty much shuts down for 10 days, the tradition is for everyone to go back to their hometown and spend the time with their families and follow the traditions of celebrating the New Year (fireworks, banquet dinner, giving money in red envelopes, etc). However, over the years many of our friends have expressed that they were dreading going home because of the pressure they would receive from their families about not making enough money or not being married yet.

Due to the pressure of getting married, within the last few years the idea of renting a boyfriend/girlfriend to go home for the holiday has become very popular. Below are some articles I've found about this:

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/536610/20140131/rent-boyfriend-1-day-solves-problem-single.htm#.Uusobne1akQ
"Take my daughter!" Parents post pictures and ads of their children to try to find a spouse for their child. I highly recommend watching both videos on the page.

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/01/rent-a-lover-this-spring-festival/
-This guy offers 1 million rmb (roughly $165,000) for a female to escort him for seven days. Special bonus was included if she had a Phd and/or was a virgin. Requirements included holding a bachelor's degree, not weighing more than 50kg (110 lb.)  and was cute looking. Over 5,200 girls responded to his post offering their services.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/world/asia/chinese-mother-newspaper-ad/
One mom placed a full page ad in the Melbourne newspaper ($2465) in Australia begging her son to come home for the holiday promising she won't pressure him to get married anymore.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-02/08/content_11963739.htm
Defending the practice of renting someone to take home

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2013/07/chaoji-shengnu-episode-20-rent-a-beau/
Renting a 'loved one' on taobao.com (equivalent to craigslist or ebay in the US)