Chinese New Year Approaches

The Chinese New Year starts on February 7th but Shanghai is already beginning to empty a bit as workers from the provinces begin their journeys home to see family. Most people get a week off and spend it traveling to homes all over China. Single women that work in factories in the big cities go home to see their parents. Husbands (and wives) go home to be with their spouses and children. This great migration happens three times each year. During the week-long breaks for Chinese New Year, May Day and the National Day in October. It's not a very efficient system. Moving hundreds of millions of people around the country at the same time strains the transportation system (and the travelers' nerves) to the breaking point. Add a few inches of snow as the country received in the past week and you have the potential for widespread unrest as trains and buses stop moving.

I have one more day to work before my office takes a three-day holiday. The fireworks will start in earnest on Wednesday. The streets are less crowded and I expect the traffic to drop off even more after Wednesday. During the height of the holiday, when the most people are out of the city, the traffic in Shanghai is almost at the manageable levels experienced circa 1998.

One thing that surprises me about China is how many husbands and wives work in different cities. It is not uncommon to find the wife working in Shanghai and the husband working in Beijing or Guangzhou. If they have children, they are often off in the provinces being raised by the grandparents. Holidays like the Chinese New Year are the only time of year the children see their parents. I can't imagine growing up that way.