235m to take trains during Spring Festival (Google) 6th January 2012

235m to take trains during Spring Festival China Daily - ‎6 hours ago‎ BEIJING - China's railways will carry 235 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Railways said Friday. A daily average of 5.88 million people will make trains trips from Jan 8 to ... Police to increase road checks during Festival China Daily - ‎7 hours ago‎ By Wang Huazhong (China Daily) BEIJING - The Ministry of Public Security on Thursday urged police to "resolutely carry out" road safety checks and traffic management in the wake of deadly accidents ahead of Spring Festival, when hundreds of millions ... A nation on the move during holiday China Daily - ‎7 hours ago‎ By Xu Wei (China Daily) BEIJING - Authorities said ensuring safety is the main task during the Spring Festival travel period as the transportation system nationwide braces for a tough test. China's annual Spring Festival travel rush will begin on ... IN BRIEF China Daily - ‎7 hours ago‎ People planning trips home for the upcoming Spring Festival, which begins on Jan 23, did not find much succor as the railways' new online ticket booking system remained paralyzed due to heavy Web traffic, and in some cases could not even issue tickets ... Booking for Spring Festival Eve dinner surge Xinhua - ‎8 hours ago‎ BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Reunion dinners are always at the top of the festival "to-do" list for Chinese people. Popular restaurants have enjoyed a surge in bookings over the three day new year holiday. In some well-known restaurants, Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Last Train Home draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the Zhangs’ hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Qin, the child they left behind, has grown into adolescence crippled by a sense of abandonment. In an act of teenage rebellion, she drops out of school. She too will become a migrant worker. The decision is a heartbreaking blow for the parents. In classic cinema verité style, Last Train Home follows the Zhangs’ attempts to change their daughter’s course and repair their ruptured family. Intimate and candid, the film paints a human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China.