In Beijing we are welcoming in the year of the TIGER. This year, Chinese New Year is the same day as Valentine’s day, the 14th of February. I am preparing my eyes and ears for the festivities. For these two weeks of national holiday, Beijing will be roaring with the sound of fireworks.

Painting by You Jin.

Most Chinese leave the cities for their home provinces to spend time with their extended families. The mass exodus has left Beijing with 1/4 of its usual population. CCTV states that there are 150 million migrant workers that leave the cities for their ancestral homes for the New Year. Thus making Chinese New Year the largest movement of people in the world.

CCTV New Years Mass Migration