More chuanjun or migrant workers from Sichuan are expected to leave the province this year to seek their fortune in big cities, including Beijing.
Their exodus, as well as the Lunar New Year holiday rush, will put the railway system under severe strain.
Xinhua yesterday quoted railway officials in Sichuan predicting that more than three million residents would leave the province on trains after the Lunar New Year holiday. The figure did not include those who travelled by other modes or transport.
Officials expected railway traffic to peak in the coming two weeks and in late March when Sichuan workers head for Xinjiang to find work there and in the surrounding provinces.
According to Xinhua, most of those expected to leave the province in the coming two weeks are destined for Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing.
Labourers in Sichuan - China's most populous province - are known to make up the biggest contingent of migrant workers in the country. Unconfirmed reports say they account for more than 10 per cent of the 100 million migrant worker population, mostly employed in industries such as construction, manufacturing and even cultivating land for farmers who live in cities. They are paid meagre wages and rarely receive holidays.
