In terms of raw numbers in every category, the Chinese New Year Spring Festival is the largest human event on the planet.

从各类原始数据来看，中国新年——春节是世界上最大的人类活动了。

In the seven days of the Lunar New Year, Chinese are expected to spend more than $100 billion on eating and shopping (almost twice as much as Americans spend on Thanksgiving) and buy railway tickets online at a rate of more than 1,000 per second.

在农历新年的七天里，中国人有望在餐饮及购物上花费1000多亿美元（几乎是美国人在感恩节消费的两倍），并且每秒钟在网上订购1000多张火车票。

But it's when millions of Chinese people go home for the Chinese New Year Spring Festival during "chunyun".

不过这是在成千上万的中国人在“春运”期间回家过春节的时候。

Transport networks have set new highs for "chunyun" numbers almost every year for the past decade, the council said.

国务院表示，在过去的十年里，交通网络承运的“春运”人数几乎每年都创历史新高。

Authorities expect travelers to make 356 million trips by rail during this year's chunyun period. Taking the strain is China's high-speed railway network, now increased to 20,000 kilometers -- the world's longest. China's total rail network stands at more than 121,000 kilometers, the second largest in the world after the United States.

官方认为，今年春运期间乘火车出行的旅客将达到3.56亿人次。承担春运压力的是中国高铁网络，如今中国高铁已增长至2万公里，成为世界上最长的高铁网络。中国铁路网络共计达12.1万多公里，成为世界上第二长的铁路网络，仅次于美国。

The "chunyun" phenomenon¹ isn't just a marvel² of logistics, it also shows how modern China is changing.

“春运”现象不仅仅是物流业的奇迹，它也说明了现代中国正如何变化着。

Trains are sardine-packed with thousands of snoozing students, reflecting education reforms that have greatly expanded the number of university places over the past decade.

火车上挤满了成千上万打盹的学生，这反映了在过去的十年里，中国教育改革极大地增加了大学入学名额。

Snappily dressed office girls in high heels can be seen picking their way through plowed³ fields on their way home, a product of the mass migration⁴ of rural people to China's coastal⁵ cities in search of better-paid jobs in service industries and factories.

你可以看到穿着高跟鞋打扮时髦的女职员们在回家的路上小心走过耕地的情景，这是农村人为了在服务业和工厂中找到薪酬更为优厚的工作而大规模迁移到中国沿海城市的结果。

Many of China's new middle classes will opt⁶ to drive in private cars and traffic mayhem is now a regular feature of the holiday period.

许多中国新中产阶级会选择驾车出行，交通混乱也已成为现今节假日期间的正常现象。

Many others, however, will choose to escape the frenzy⁷ altogether and take a vacation abroad -- increasingly an option for China's newly minted nouveau riche.

然而，还有许多人会选择完全避开这种混乱，去国外度假，这也成为越来越多中国新崛起的暴发户们的一个选择。