Bittersweet Spring Festival

 

Editor's note: Since time immemorial, Spring Festival has been a season for family bonding, spreading good cheer, sharing, caring and giving. Especially for the urban young or migrant workers who make the annual trip back to their hometown, the seven-day holiday is the best time for a happy get-together with family, and also a respite from daily pressure. But inevitably, the holiday season can be a combination of frustrations and joy. The travel rush, the need to give gifts, and pressure to get married -- many Chinese face these and similar problems. 

 

Bittersweet Spring Festival
 

Bittersweet Spring Festival 

Bittersweet Spring Festival
  
Bittersweet Spring Festival
 
Take a sip of Chinese New Year Homeward bound, no matter what  Planes, trains, and automobiles 

Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival

Dozens of international students from Nanjing Agriculture University experienced the preparation for the coming Spring Festival, which falls on Jan 31 this year. 

Zhang Xiaoming, a migrant worker from North China's Shanxi province said that he just hopes for a happy family reunion - and that getting back pay is not a priority.

College student Sun Weibo is riding his bicycle from Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, to his hometown Shangqiu, Henan province, in Central China, almost 800 kilometers, on Jan. 21, 2013.

 
Bittersweet Spring Festival
 

If you stay at home, embarrasing questions about kids or love life from old folks are common. If you go out to visit relatives and friends, you should prepare a fat red envelope. If you dread all that and just want to get together with old friends, you'll probably have to talk about how much you achieved in the past year, a subtle form of flaunting and peer competition. What are you most concerned about as Spring Festival approaches? 

            

Travel rush 

 

Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival


 Don't miss

   
Bittersweet Spring Festival

Spring Festival travel rush begins 

New babies' first trip home
Catnaps help travelers keep going Expats in Spring Festival travel rush
 
Pressure from parents  
 
Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival

 
New couples urged to have babies   Rented boyfriends keep parents at bay   
 

Don't miss 

   
Bittersweet Spring Festival

Holidays a stressful time for single offspring  

Mom's regret  

Home-going headaches

Saving face adds pressure to reunions
 

Awkward questions

Bittersweet Spring Festival

 

What's the buzz


Bittersweet Spring Festival


Bittersweet Spring Festival


Bittersweet Spring Festival


Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival

     

More Spring Festival special coverage from chinadaily.com.cn

Bittersweet Spring Festival

Bittersweet Spring Festival

 
 New Year's Wishes from the Ambassadors  Where does the money go during the Spring Festival?