A smooth Chunyun ensures every family's reunion

Passengers buying tickets at Yinhu Bus Station in this February 2015 photo. Photos by Sun Yuchen except otherwise stated

Train ticket buyers on a road in front of Shenzhen Stadium in this 2004 file photo. Yang Junpo

Passengers onboard a bus departing from Futian Transport Hub in Zhuzilin in this January 2010 photo.

Passengers at Shenzhen Railway Station in this February 2010 photo.

A traffic policeman at Nantou Checkpoint in this January 2010 photo.

Migrant workers about to take buses sponsored by funds from the China Welfare Lottery in this February 2015 photo.

Passengers at Shenzhen North Railway Station in this January 2019 photo.

Passengers at Shenzhen West Railway Station in this February 2015 photo.

Yinhu Bus Station staff members waving to passengers in this February 2015 photo.

Passengers at Shenzhen North Railway Station in January 2020.

Chunyun, also referred to as the Spring Festival travel season, is a period of travel in China with an extremely high traffic load around the Chinese New Year holiday. Emerging with the reform and opening up in China in the past 40 years, Chunyun has been called the largest annual human travel migration in the world.

As a migrant city, Shenzhen sees millions of trips in every Chunyun season. Since rail transport experiences the biggest challenges during this period, buying a train ticket in the 1980s-1990s usually involved hours of waiting for passengers, sometimes over night. In recent years, the city has planned ahead every year to tackle travel problems. Last year, the local traffic police used helicopters to check the road traffic and guide drivers. This year amid the pandemic, body temperature checking and quarantine works were carried out smoothly in every transport venue to ensure every passenger's safety.