
Chinese New Year Is World’s Biggest Human Migration - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-28/china-readies-for-world-s-biggest-human-migration-quicktake
======
nsedlet
I highly recommend the documentary Last Train Home. It follows a Chinese
family - the parents leave their children in their rural village to go off in
search of work. They make the annual trip back to see them for Chinese New
Year.

The film captures the awesome scale of the migration and its cultural
importance, as well as the social impact of China's urbanization. It's really
devastating.

~~~
odajay
I have seen this documentary a few years ago and still think about it on a
monthly basis or whenever someone refers about Chinese workers. Really
impactful.

~~~
txdejk
There is definitely a lot of misunderstanding between Chinese and American
peoples. They are a lot more similar than most understand. And when people say
something could "only" be done in one country or the other, they are usually
grossly mistaken.

The governments are different though. And China's problem of keeping everyone
employed and having bright enough futures that they won't revolt is far
greater and more urgent than the US's, it doesn't mean the US doesn't have the
problem. A lot of the reason for wage stagnation in the US is because profits
were diverted and invested in China to help growth there. The profits from
those ventures ended up staying in China where it fueled a boom, but even then
it was only a fraction of what is needed to get everyone employed in jobs with
future growth potential. If it slows enougb to start failing, it has the
potential, with so many people, to be pretty nasty.

I think China is a pretty fascinating place, with definite problems, but still
pretty fascinating.

------
JDiculous
In other news, protests in Hong Kong over Chinese tourists.

"We don’t want your money: Chinese shoppers told to spend cash elsewhere by
frustrated Hongkongers who just want some peace and quiet"
[https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-
economy/articl...](https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-
economy/article/2184891/we-dont-want-your-money-chinese-shoppers-told-spend)

Also, Bloomberg is really the worst with clickbait titles.

~~~
azurezyq
peace and quiet... HK? Well, haters take their own shares. However HK cannot
make money from peace and quiet to make it sustainable.

According to Wikipedia
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong#GDP[45]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong#GDP\[45\])),
Tourism is 5% of the GDP and I believe a big chunk of that is contributed by
people from mainland.

~~~
schuke
I highly doubt if it's only 5%. A mainlander goes to HK, buys Rolex and new
iPhone. Wears the Rolex and switches to the new iPhone. Goes back to mainland
without declaring anything. How do these numbers end up in official statistics
for tourism? Or it could be the other way round: HK resident buys Rolex and
iPhone, sells in mainland thus making money.

~~~
rahimnathwani
Unless the Rolex and iPhone are made in Hong Kong, only the wholesale and
retail margin would show up in GDP.

------
CaliforniaKarl
Prior to working where I am now, I worked at a fabless semiconductor
manufacturer, with a development office in Shenzhen. It was actually kindof
nice: As long as everything was coordinated properly back in November, China
would continue working during US Christmastime, and we would keep working
during China New Year.

------
ksec
I still remember there was an article about the largest human made DDoS attack
on the China Railway Ticket System. When you literally have few hundred
million people all trying to access the system at midnight. The ticket system
was at one point built on Ruby Rails, but I think it quickly moved to
something else before moving to Go.

~~~
rahimnathwani
The online booking site had the hardest captchas I've ever seen. One time I
was having difficulty and asked a couple of colleagues to help. Even they
(well-educated native Chinese) got it wrong one time.

This article has some examples: [https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-train-
ticket-site-image-ca...](https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-train-ticket-site-
image-captcha-hard-92-guess-wrong)

Other than the captcha, the site works well, although it's not pretty.

------
s1mon
This Wendover Productions video "Why China Is so Good at Building Railways"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JDoll8OEFE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JDoll8OEFE)
also explains a lot about how things have changed recently to make this
migration even more possible in China. They've built so much high speed rail
in the last decade that they now have more than the rest of the world,
combined. Hong Kong to Beijing is under 9 hours, while comparable distances in
other parts of the world are over 40 hours.

------
maxander
> The government expects 2.99 billion journeys to take place over the holiday,
> an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous year [...]

So assuming most are taking a trip somewhere and a trip back, that's about 1.5
billion people involved in this phenomenon, somehow or another- roughly 1 out
of every 5 humans on the planet!

~~~
the_duke
Which can't be right, as China 'only' has a population of 1.4 billion, of
which a significant portion will probably not travel since most of their
family is local.

This has to somehow include multiple trips per person. Maybe train to airpot +
flight + train to destination + the same for return.

~~~
bobthepanda
The metric is _journeys_ , not people. There are lots of small villages not
directly connected to the rail network or an airport.

------
cjohansson
Wow this must be tough on the climate

~~~
jimmydef
Actually, I would think everyone travelling during one period of the year is
better for the climate than the alternative which is people going back to
their hometowns uniformly throughout the year. Going back together would mean
that trains/buses/etc are all at full capacity so it's way more efficient
CO2/energy wise per person mile travelled.

------
zachguo
3 billion trips in 15 days. Hats off to whoever make this transportation
infrastructure possible.

------
bigmonads
That's amazing. I always assumed that the Hajj to Mecca was the largest.

~~~
blackoil
Checkout Kumbh Mela, India
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela))
going on right now. It happens every 6/12 years. In 2013, 120 million pilgrims
attended it over period of 30-40 days.

------
justicezyx
See the reactions to this post and those from PH Internet usage. I just cannot
ignore the stark stereotype contrast...

~~~
zhte415
> See the reactions to this post and those from PH Internet usage. I just
> cannot ignore the stark stereotype contrast...

Could you explain? I don't get what's stark, nor the stereotypes about
reactions.

