New Spring Festival traditions emerging

The Spring Festival travel rush, or chunyun, when people traditionally return to their hometowns from the places where they work to celebrate the Lunar New Year, is the world's largest annual human migration. This year's chunyun began on Feb 1 and will continue through March 12.

For a long time, the tradition that one should return to one's hometown for family reunions during Spring Festival has been a moral burden on Chinese who have migrated from the rural areas to cities in search of a better life. But as a recent report released by a domestic tourism website indicates, there are some new chunyun trends emerging, such as more Chinese families choosing to spend the Lunar New Year traveling to domestic resorts or overseas destinations, and young people working in big cities being more inclined to invite their parents to come to them for family reunions.

Different people in China may have different ideas about Spring Festival. But for young people working far away from their hometowns in metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Spring Festival family reunions are not necessarily something to look forward to. Aside from the challenge of buying an air or train ticket or making tiring long-distance journeys by car, most of young people face a grilling about their personal lives from relatives and friends such as "How much do you earn every month?", "Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?" and "Have you bought a house?".