Episode 1: Time to go home for reunion

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Li Ying, Tsinghua University (CCTV.com)

Li Ying, Tsinghua University, said, "Like Ms. Sun, numerous Chinese parents are looking forward to their children's return for the Spring Festival. And the family ties also pull in the other direction, here on campus. Once the final exams are over, most students rush back home as fast as they can."

Yang Zhenzong has finally bought his train ticket to go home. (CCTV.com)

Yang Zhenzong has finally bought his train ticket to go home. A senior student at the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University, his hometown is more than 25-hundred kilometers away, in a small county in Yunnan Province. He spent the entire summer holidays interning at a small IT company. He really wants to be with his parents and grandma this winter holiday. But it wasn't easy to get hold of a train ticket.

Yang Zhenzong, Student, said, "I got up at about 6 o'clock that day and went to the railway station to buy the ticket. When I arrived, it wasn't yet 8 o'clock. But already there was a long queue there. It was freezing cold and I queued for more than 2 hours for my turn at the ticket window. But they told me all tickets prior to January 23rd had been sold out. If I bought a ticket for the 23rd, I would get to Kunming at about noontime on the 25th. And to get to my hometown, I still have to take a more than 4-hour long bus ride. So I would run the risk of missing our family dinner on New Year's Eve."

Yang Zhenzong decided to buy a ticket from an illegal vendor. Although it's more expensive, he thinks it was worth it.