Traveling home to celebrate the Spring Festival with relatives is not the only choice as it used to be for people who have moved to Shanghai and other major cities to work.
More and more residents are forgoing the often arduous journey home in favor of reuniting with their loved ones in their adoptive city instead, a trend that has been dubbed "reverse Spring Festival."
According to a recent report by travel booking website ctrip.com, cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the destinations for over 20 percent of its online air ticket sales in the run up to the Spring Festival, significantly more than last year.
Analysts say heavy urban work responsibilities and a growing enthusiasm for spending time in big cities are the major factors contributing to the trend.
Liu Jie, a young doctor from Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province, who works at a hospital in Shanghai, has invited her parents to spend the Spring Festival at her home this year.
Instead of having dinner with a dozen relatives on Chinese New Year's Eve back home, Liu said either her father will cook for them at her rented apartment or they will dine out somewhere here in Shanghai.
"I miss home, but spending the Spring Festival in Shanghai is not bad at all," she said. "At home the greatest pastime over the holiday is mahjong, which I'm not good at, while Shanghai has a lot more fun to offer."
That said, Liu still has fond memories of visiting relatives with her parents during the holiday and being served hot tea made from red dates and ginger — a local specialty — at every household.
Zhang Yingnian, Liu's mother, said her biggest wish every year is to reunite with her daughter for the Spring Festival, and Liu's other relatives would love to come to Shanghai as well, but there is not enough room for them all to stay.
"I'm a daughter too, and I would like to be with my own mother for the Spring Festival, but it's my mother that insists that I go to my daughter in Shanghai, who would otherwise feel lonely," Zhang said.
Jiang Renqin, an ayi from rural Shouxian County in Anhui Province, who has been living in Shanghai for seven years, cannot go home this year because she has work commitments for the entire holiday. However, her mother is here to help her make the best of it.
"We have a different Spring Festival tradition from others because usually we spend over 10 days together, all of us, more than 20 people, dining, chatting and playing," she said. "I would definitely go home if I could, because my relatives once said that without me being there, it was like a few people were missing."
Yang Jilan, Jiang's mother, said she does not like big cities, but being in Shanghai is better than missing out on the most important family occasion of the year.
"I feel suffocated when taking the elevator up and down the floors, and I don't like crowds at all, but I know that I can't both stay at home and have my daughter by my side, because she's too far away from me," she said.
