BEIJING, Feb 10: Millions around China were making final preparations over the weekend to usher in the Year of the Horse in traditional fashion — cramming into home-bound trains and stripping supermarket shelves bare.

Despite forecasts that the upcoming Lunar New Year, beginning Tuesday, could prove a turbulent one, most people appear happy to temporarily forget their worries amid the holy trinity of a modern Chinese New Year, family, consumption and television.

This weekend the vast population movement of people heading home to see relatives was around its peak.

When the dust settles after the New Year holiday, according to Ministry of Transport estimates, around 130 million rail journeys will have been made, 1.59 billion trips by road and 24.3 million by boat.

As well as migrant workers returning home, a number of China’s wealthier citizens travel for leisure during New Year, both within China and abroad.—AFP