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  • Ah, Chinese New Year.

  • Time for family,

  • dumplings!

  • And crazy...

  • insane...

  • travel.

  • Welcome back to China Uncensored.

  • I'm Chris Chappell.

  • For most Americans,

  • the wordsspring festivalandinsane crowds

  • mean one thing

  • SPRING BREAK, BABY!

  • But in China, those words mean much bigger crowds,

  • And sliiiightly less fun.

  • Because every year,

  • China is home to the world's largest

  • seasonal human migration.

  • It's the annual travel frenzy around Chinese New Year.

  • These days in mainland China,

  • they call it the Spring Festival.

  • Not because Chinese people in February

  • are weirdly optimistic about spring,

  • But because, like many traditional things in China,

  • the Communist Party changed the name to make it

  • less about those old feudal superstitions,

  • and more about the kind of messages they can control.

  • Anyway, Chinese New Year this year is February 5.

  • And 2019 is the year of the pig.

  • Or if this is your zodiac year,

  • you can call it the year of the boar,

  • which sounds way cooler.

  • But no matter what the year,

  • the Chinese New Year holiday is accompanied

  • by a massive travel rush that lasts about 40 days.

  • It's called Chunyun,

  • which means Spring Festival travel season.

  • This year, between January 21 and March 1,

  • Chinese people will make nearly 3 billion trips

  • by planes...

  • trains...

  • and automobiles.

  • Wow.

  • Compared to that,

  • a few days with John Candy doesn't sound so bad.

  • The main reason for the ginormous travel crowds

  • is China's migrant workers.

  • About 270 million people have migrated

  • from the countryside to the cities to find work

  • in factories, construction, etc.

  • Understandably, a lot of them want to

  • go back to their hometowns to visit family.

  • And pretty much everyone in China gets the same dates off.

  • So this puts a big strain on China's infrastructure.

  • Tickets for buses, planes and trains can be really

  • hard

  • to get.

  • About a decade ago,

  • the Chinese government launched Operation Sky Sword

  • Clearly not a new Zelda game.

  • It is a huge campaign

  • to fight fake train ticket scalping

  • in Guangzhou, one of China's busiest transit hubs.

  • The situation has improved a bit since then.

  • Especially since the introduction of high speed trains.

  • Chinese authorities even launched

  • 10 new railways at the end of 2018

  • to deal with this year's travel rush.

  • They've also started new ploys

  • to make the insanity more bearable,

  • like service robots that serve of water

  • to travelers at train stations and,

  • you know, probably scan your face to keep tabs on you,

  • but hey the water's free!

  • Or a train station symphony orchestra

  • to serenade travelers with on-message music and songs;

  • Or train station dance performances that definitely don't feel forced.

  • But even with improvements,

  • it's still miserably crowded.

  • But that's the price Chinese people

  • have to pay to get home for the holidays.

  • Whether they're in Chongqing,

  • Nanjing,

  • Xian,

  • Shanghai,

  • or Beijing.

  • So as China rings in the Year of the Pig,

  • spare a warm thought for

  • the hundreds of millions of people

  • trying to make it home for the holidays,

  • and for the old

  • the young

  • and the very young

  • as they try and survive the 2019 travel madness.

  • And the watchful gaze of big brother.

  • So how would you make the Chinese New Year travel madness

  • a little easier to bear?

  • Leave your comments below.

  • And before we go,

  • it's time to answer a question from a fan

  • who supports China Uncensored

  • through the crowdfunding website Patreon.

  • Reventon Arch asks:

  • Why the beard Chris?”

  • I think this speaks for itself.

  • Thanks for your question, Reventon.

  • And thank you to all my fans

  • who contribute a dollar or more per episode.

  • We rely mainly on your support

  • to keep China Uncensored going.

  • Go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.

  • Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.

  • See you next time.

Ah, Chinese New Year.

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