Nearly 100,000 Chinese travellers stranded

Massive queues outside the Guangzhou railway station in southern China’s Guangdong province on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people are travelling to celebrate the Lunar New Year. (Photo: AFP)

Nearly 100,000 Lunar New Year travellers in China were stranded in the city of Guangzhou, the police said, as snow and ice disrupted the world’s largest annual human migration.

Many trains to the capital of the southern province of Guangdong were delayed after north and central China were hit by the big freeze, leaving no transport available for those waiting to leave. The police said on a verified microblog that the numbers stuck at two of the city’s main stations, Guangzhou and Guangzhou East, reached nearly 100,000 in total Monday, prompting the mobilisation of almost 4,000 police and security guards to maintain order at the sites, it said.

As China’s manufacturing powerhouse, Guangdong is a major hub for the vast numbers of migrant workers who leave their homes in China’s countryside to labour in its factories. Many only return home once a year, when tradition dictates all family members must gather before midnight on the eve of the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 8 this time.

The phenomenon puts huge pressure on China’s transport infrastructure. The government estimated that 2.91 billion trips will be taken over the holiday’s 40-day travel season, in what is thought to be the largest yearly mov-ement of people in the wo-rld. Much of China was struck by a teeth-chattering cold snap late last month, with snow falling in some areas for the first time in years.