Story highlights Chinese authorities expect 2.5 billion trips by land during the "chunyun" mass migrationTotal distance traveled is 1.2 billion kilometers -- equivalent of traveling from Earth to Saturn(CNN) In terms of raw numbers in almost every category, the Chinese New Year Spring Festival is the largest human event on the planet. In the seven days of the Lunar New Year, Chinese are expected to spend more than $100 billion on eating and shopping (almost twice as much as Americans spend on Thanksgiving) and buy railway tickets online at a rate of more than 1,000 per second. But it's when millions of Chinese people go home for the Chinese New Year Spring Festival during "chunyun" -- the annual spring migration -- that China's flair for organization on a gargantuan scale really comes into its own. In 2017 -- the Year of the Rooster -- Chinese authorities expect holidaymakers to make 2.5 billion trips by land, 356 million by rail, 58 million by plane and 43 million by sea over the 40-day period, which starts on January 13 and lasts until February 21.

Source: CNN January 13, 2017 02:41 UTC