Chunyun
Chunyun (traditional Chinese: 春運; simplified Chinese: 春运; pinyin: Chūnyùn; literally translated as “Spring transportation”), also referred to as the Spring Festival travel rush or the Chunyun period, is a period of travel in China with extremely high traffic load around the time of the Chinese New Year. The travel season in China usually begins 15 days before New Year's Day and lasts for around 40 days. In 2016 it was predicted that there would be 2.9 billion passenger journeys during that year's Chunyun season.[1] It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world.[2][3] Rail transport experiences the biggest challenge during the period, and several problems have emerged. This phenomenon is also seen in parts of Asia such as Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.
Taiwan[edit]
In Taiwan, spring travel is also a major event.
The majority of transportation before the Lunar New Year in western Taiwan is southbound long distance travel, in which people travel from the urbanized north to their hometowns in the rural south. Transportation in eastern Taiwan and between Taiwan and outlying islands is somewhat less convenient. Cross-strait flights between Taiwan and mainland China began in 2003 as part of Three Links, mostly for "Taiwanese businessmen" to return to Taiwan for the New Year. After the New Year, there are many local family tours throughout the holidays. On the second and the third day, there is a second wave of medium-long distance travel when the families go to the hometowns of the wives. Near the end of the holidays there is a wave of northbound returning travels which is less concentrated than the southbound travels. In 2012, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, there were an estimated 3 million cars on the island's freeways, and on the 8th day (the Friday of the holiday week) there were "2.7 million vehicles, about 1.7 times the average daily traffic volume of about 1.6 million."[20]