Being at home for Chinese New Year is very important, with the result that the transportation system in China is overtaxed:

"China's transport system was stretched to the limit while goods flew off shop shelves in a last-minute rush as 1.3 billion people -- a fifth of humanity -- prepared to celebrate Lunar New Year.

The festival officially begins Wednesday but in practice kicks off Tuesday with debts paid, homes swept, unfinished business completed and families coming together to mark the Year of the Rooster -- year 4702 on the Chinese calendar.

Authorities laid on extra planes, trains and buses to cope with what constitutes the biggest movement of people on Earth.

"We really want to hurry up and go home because we have been away from our families for one year," said Lin Yanxue, a 20-year-old factory worker leaving Beijing for her home in Shandong province.

Lin, like millions of others packing bus and train stations, only manages one visit home each year which traditionally happens during the Chinese, or Lunar, New Year.

Up to 1.97 billion trips are expected to be made during the Lunar travel period from January 25 to February 28 -- more this year than ever before."