From the Christian Science Monitor:
China is a country on the move – this month especially. The nation’s trains, highways, and airplanes will handle an estimated 1.8 billion passenger trips over the next month as part of Spring Festival, a holiday of homecoming tied to the Chinese New Year.
For hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrant workers – the cogs of what has been dubbed “the world’s factory” – Spring Festival is not just a rare opportunity for R&R, but a make-or-break payday. Employers often promise to pay by this holiday the back wages owed from months of toil so that workers can return to their families with the fruits of their labor from the year.