Home for the holidays, in spirit only

• Source: Global Times
• [01:31 February 10 2010]
• Comments

 Hukou system fuels travel

Spring Festival is the most important Chinese festival for family reunions.

People return home from work or school to enjoy dinner with families on New Year's Eve.

Chunyun, also referred to as Spring Festival travel rush, is a busy time for travel.

It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world.

Lei Yi, researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes the heavy traffic during the festival and the recently grown up "kongguizu" partly stemmed from the household registration system.

"The non-convertible household registration system causes the massive migration every year. If the problem exists in the household registration system can be changed, then family members will gradually live together. Then the annual massive migration can partly be solved," said Lei.

He added that financial concerns also contributed to the emergence of kongguizu.