春運這場最壯觀的人口遷徙老外今年又來圍觀了

In terms of raw numbers in every category, the Chinese New Year Spring Festival is the largest human event on the planet.
從各類原始數據來看，中國新年——春節是世界上最大的人類活動了。

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.
在農曆新年的七天裏，中國人有望在餐飲及購物上花費1000多億美元（幾乎是美國人在感恩節消費的兩倍），並且每秒鐘在網上訂購1000多張火車票。

But it's when millions of Chinese people go home for the Chinese New Year Spring Festival during "chunyun".
不過這是在成千上萬的中國人在“春運”期間回家過春節的時候。

Transport networks have set new highs for "chunyun" numbers almost every year for the past decade, the council said.
國務院表示，在過去的十年裏，交通網絡承運的“春運”人數幾乎每年都創歷史新高。

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.
官方認爲，今年春運期間乘火車出行的旅客將達到3.56億人次。承擔春運壓力的是中國高鐵網絡，如今中國高鐵已增長至2萬公里，成爲世界上最長的高鐵網絡。中國鐵路網絡共計達12.1萬多公里，成爲世界上第二長的鐵路網絡，僅次於美國。

The "chunyun" phenomenon isn't just a marvel of logistics, it also shows how modern China is changing.
“春運”現象不僅僅是物流業的奇蹟，它也說明了現代中國正如何變化着。

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.
火車上擠滿了成千上萬打盹的學生，這反映了在過去的十年裏，中國教育改革極大地增加了大學入學名額。

Snappily dressed office girls in high heels can be seen picking their way through plowed fields on their way home, a product of the mass migration of rural people to China's coastal cities in search of better-paid jobs in service industries and factories.
你可以看到穿着高跟鞋打扮時髦的女職員們在回家的路上小心走過耕地的情景，這是農村人爲了在服務業和工廠中找到薪酬更爲優厚的工作而大規模遷移到中國沿海城市的結果。

Many of China's new middle classes will opt to drive in private cars and traffic mayhem is now a regular feature of the holiday period.
許多中國新中產階級會選擇駕車出行，交通混亂也已成爲現今節假日期間的正常現象。

Many others, however, will choose to escape the frenzy altogether and take a vacation abroad -- increasingly an option for China's newly minted nouveau riche.
然而，還有許多人會選擇完全避開這種混亂，去國外度假，這也成爲越來越多中國新崛起的暴發戶們的一個選擇。