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There's something universal about going home for the holidays. And with the Chinese New Year coming up hundreds of millions of people are testing the limits of China's transit system. That means for some people, even getting a ticket can be a challenge.
It's the largest annual human migration. Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens make their way home for the Lunar New Year.
[Zhang Fengling, Student from Hebei Province]:
"You definitely have to go home for lunar New Year, I think that goes for all Chinese people. It doesn't matter where you are, you just have to go home for the New Year."
Even though the lunar New Year isn't until Monday, trains, planes, and buses are already overrun with travelers.
[Xiang Fan, Duty Station Manager]:
"Each day now there are about 430 buses going out, carrying about 12,000 people. The passenger flow this year surpasses the transport capacity, and it should be the highest so far. Compared to last year, it should have increased by about 10 percent."
That's an estimated 3.1 billion passenger trips over 40 days, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. In hopes of making holiday travel easier, the Ministry of Railways launched a new online ticketing system. But it does little good for migrant workers like Gao Yongxu, who have no access to the Internet.
[Gao Yongxu, Migrant Worker]:
"I queued up for five hours, and still ended up getting a standing ticket. There were no seats left, everyone had bought them online but we don't know how to do that, it's just too troublesome."
For many migrant workers, this is the only time of year they can return home, often to see children who have been raised by relatives.
But even those who could go online complained the ticketing system was far from helpful.
