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Chunyun: the largest migration on Earth

Forty days, and an official forecast of nine billion trips in 2024.

· 0:59 · Narrated by Iris Calder, culture desk (synthetic voice)

Transcript

  1. It is the largest annual migration on Earth. And it happens every winter.
  2. Every year, in the weeks around the Lunar New Year, hundreds of millions of people in China travel home to their families.
  3. The season has a name: chunyun, the Spring Festival travel season.
  4. It lasts forty days, from the weeks before the festival to the weeks after it.
  5. For twenty twenty-four, China's transport ministry forecast nine billion trips, counting journeys by car on the roads.
  6. Most of those journeys are made by road, by car.
  7. The busiest long-distance routes go by train: on the high-speed railway network, the world's longest.
  8. There is a saying for the season. Home for the New Year, whatever the distance.
  9. From the Culture Desk at The North China Times, happy travels.

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