That wonderful time of the year is here once again as millions upon millions of people journey home to spend the Chinese New Year holiday with their families in what will become the largest migration in human history.

This year, the annual Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun (春运), officially kicked off on January 10 and will continue on until February 18. During that time, over 3 billion trips are expected to be taken.

Broken down that means 2.43 billion trips by road, 440 million by train, 79 million by air, and 45 million by boat.

The first day of the Chinese New Year is January 25 and people across China will get January 24 to 30 off from work. Over the next two weeks, expect to see more and more people heading for the train station as China gradually slips down through the circles of travel hell.

[Images via NetEase]