So another new year is upon us. Another one, you ask? Well, we’ve already celebrated our regular, plain old new year, and the Islamic new year has come and gone. So what’s this one?
Chinese new year, of course.
Yes, we’re about to usher in the Year of the Rat. And what an eventful Chinese new year it’s turning out to be.
I’m about to experience Chinese new year in Malaysia, as I have several times over the last few years. It’s an interesting holiday, for sure. I’ve also had the good fortune of being able to experience the holiday in China, where pretty much everyone doesn’t call it new year but instead refers to it as the Spring Festival.
Anyone who’s been following the news knows that this year’s Spring Festival is a rather complicated one, with winter storms wreaking havoc upon several Chinese provinces. The southern province of Guangdong, where I spent one of the most interesting years of my life, didn’t get the snowy blast that hit other provinces, but it is indeed seeing more than its share of havoc.
The days just before Chinese New Year (yeah, I can’t help but call it that) are filled with havoc in Guangzhou even in a good year. That’s because the somewhat prosperous city’s population is bolstered by huge numbers of people from other provinces who migrated there looking for a better life. When Chinese New Year approaches, they all want to go back to their hometowns; since most can’t afford plane tickets (and the flights are sold out in the blink of an eye anyway), they have to take the train.
I’ve complained about the trains in Malaysia, but they seriously have nothing on China. Actually, Guangzhou’s equivalent of Malaysia’s LRT is way better, but the trains you need to take if you want to leave the city, well those are the stuff of nightmares. My good friend Ice—my brother from a Chinese mother—had to endure a 40-hour journey from Guangzhou to Changchun, in the country’s frigid northeast. He was almost too traumatised to talk about it, but he did mention something about the train being so packed that he couldn’t even get out of his seat; when he finally managed to push through the crowd on the train, spurred on by the overpowering urge to relieve himself, he even found people three-deep in the toilet. Every square centimetre of the train was occupied, which made bottles essential for any passenger (many of those anticipating having to do more than a mere pee were also prepared, apparently). That was all he told me before he went silent and stared at the ground. 40 hours. Okay then.
If that was the scene on the train, just imagine what it was like when everyone was trying to get on at the main railway station in Guangzhou. Just multiply the number of people exponentially. We saw the crowds when we were there, and let me tell you, it was insane. Now throw in a heavy winter snowfall that has pretty much crippled several other provinces and screwed up the transportation system, and what do you get?
Chaos.
Go here for some videos, and here for a video of a stampede at the station. Go here for some pretty compelling photos of the military’s efforts to deal with the human tide, and here for a blogger’s personal account of some of the chaos at the train station.
I think I’d better give Ice a call. Hopefully he didn’t even try to go home this year. If he did, he’s probably somewhere in that crowd. Hopefully he’s okay.
And hopefully everyone will still have a happy Chinese New Year. To all my Chinese friends: Gong Xi Fa Cai!