The annual Lunar New Year pilgrimage—a time for family reunions, festive feasts, and, for millions, an epic battle against the clock and crowded transport. For those heading back to Northeast China, the journey can feel like an odyssey, a testament to resilience in the face of immense logistical challenges. Every year, social media platforms buzz with stories and laments about the sheer difficulty of securing tickets, navigating packed stations, and enduring long, arduous trips just to share a meal with loved ones.
This intense desire to be home is powerfully captured in Fan Lixin’s amazing and award-winning documentary, Last Train Home (2009). The film plunges viewers into the heart of a profound struggle. It follows the married couple Chen and Zhang, who, like so many migrant workers, leave their young daughter behind in rural Sichuan to work in Guangzhou’s factories. Each Lunar New Year, their desperate attempt to return home unveils the immense emotional and physical toll of China’s economic boom.
The documentary also paints a vivid picture of what it was truly like to be a youth in rural China in the early 2000s, caught between tradition and the magnetic pull of urban opportunity, often at the expense of family closeness. The narrative does an amazing job at immersing you in the raw emotion of a family fractured by distance, yearning for a fleeting reunion.
Today, while the infrastructure has evolved, the core struggle persists for many. The sheer volume of travelers during Chunyun, the Lunar New Year travel rush, ensures that getting home, especially to the colder, often more remote regions of Northeast China, remains a monumental task. The conversations online reflect this enduring reality: tales of endless queues, sold-out tickets, and the bittersweet anticipation of a journey that tests patience as much as it promises joy. While the simple concept “heading back home for the holidays” is simple for many around the world, in China, it’s actually a profound cultural ritual; a deeply personal and collective endeavor to reaffirm the bonds of family and heritage, no matter the obstacles.
Watch the amazing documentary of Last Train Home, directed by Fan Lixin, in full with English subs below:
Cover image via YouTube/POV.
