China readies itself for travel mayhem

On January 19th, China will officially begin the Spring Festival travel season, kicking off the mass exodus to and from cities all over China. Cue the long lines, delayed trains and planes, and mayhem at the ticket booths.

In an article from the Global Times, the National Development and Reform Commission estimates than in this travel period, a staggering 2.85 billion trips will be made, an increase of 12% from 2010. Of this figure, 2.56 billion passengers will be on buses, 300 million on the rails, 35 million on boats and approximately 32 million in the air.

The Spring Festival travel season, more colloquially known as Chunyun, puts enormous stress on every single facet of the national transport infrastructure. As many would have noticed, special temporary shelters have been erected at the major train stations in Beijing to adequately cope for the chaotic lines that will 'queue' outside in the city's bitter winter.

For expats who are planning to leave Beijing during Spring Festival, now is the best time to capitalize on the cheap deals on websites such as elong and ctrip to avoid being stuck in the chaos or missing out on tickets.

And although the weather has been depressingly dry, I'm sure everyone will agree that no one wants it to snow heavily during this time.