From January 7th to February 15th the transport ministry predicts that 2.1bn journeys will be made by Chinese heading home for the Spring Festival, or lunar new year. Some will be urban professionals, gliding between cities on high-speed trains. Many will ride slower lü pi huoche or “green-skin trains”, squeezed into crowded carriages or sitting on corridor floors as they trundle across China on journeys that may last 40 hours or more. Many millions of them have not seen home towns or villages—and in many cases their own children and the ageing parents who care for them—for two years, because of pandemic travel curbs.
我印象比较深的一次坐绿皮火车的经历，是 20 年放寒假，从南宁坐火车回蕲春，25 个小时，当时看到墙外消息，传出可能有类似 SARS 的病毒出现，但是中央电视台辟谣说不会人传人，我想 03 年有 SARS 出现，这种事情政府应该不会说假话吧，但还是有一些担心，整个车厢塞满了人，我就 sit on the corridor floor 很长时间，之后年三十武汉就封城了，幸运的是自己没有感染。