New Year in China isn’t just what you celebrate but where you celebrate and what it tells us about what we already know but maybe don’t always quite see, that China is a country of migrants. Though, it is not as it is in many western countries a migration of national peoples. Here it is a migration from the country to the city, from small town to large, most often within the same province, although ofcourse the general mass movement in recent decades East and South has been huge.
Having spent the previous Spring Festival (CNY) in Xi’an, I saw a modern city with a very large population become quiet over a fortnightly period. Streets usually bustling with people were strangely, at such a festive season, quietened. Restaurants I was used to frequenting, closed. The train and bus stations were fit to burst with an annual magnitude far exceeding reasonable fore planning. Though, I might add, the ease and general peace that received these time–delays, queues and the simply huge numbers of people in transit is an example to us all. The stoicism that these delays and conditions are met with is nothing short of inspiring for most of us now so used to credit-card bookings and us Brits used to our fair share of train delays. I will stop though from making any further sweeping statements about matters of reliability and forbearance here in China, or elsewhere, and just simply acknowledge that this is a pretty crazy time to be travelling in China, mental preparation may be as important as the packing checklist.
This year I have visited my girlfriend’s village and nearby hometown. A small town that come evening has a friendly, seaside promenade feel, even in winter and even though it is probably over a 1000km from the nearest beach. (Though during this visit we discovered that the wide but slowly drying river running through the middle of town is to be damned and a water park developed between the two town-boundary bridges). However, the masses that I have witnessed on the streets here this time compared to previous visits has been phenomenal.
As my bus pulled into town the sheer number of motor bikes and pushbikes parked on the sidewalk created a sparkling, star swept vista of chrome and coloured metal; resembling a massive second-hand market of 2-wheeled vehicles rather than being simply the exterior of a supermarket, where bikes were being left while shopping was being bought. It is an image I will not easily forget, not just because of the sheer quantity of bikes but because it reminded me of a life somewhat passed in many parts of China.
In some of the slower developing areas here you actually see some of the things that maybe you still expect to see upon arriving in China but actually do not necessarily find. In this case, roads here are filled with bicycles and not the electric mopeds and 4-wheeled Hondas and Audi’s of downtown Xi’an, though the bicycle is certainly rivaled by the motorbike. The masses have returned and they are doing so all over China and they are doing it by plane, train and a variety of automobiles.
* This photograph isn’t mine but I like it.
Tags: Chinese New Year, Travel in China
西安