China needs a loop

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Vast crowds of migrant workers surged into Guangzhou’s main railway station hoping to make it back to their family homes ahead of Lunar New Year festivities on 8 February that will usher in the Year of the Monkey.

a bout of freezing weather and snow across eastern and central China saw at least 23 trains delayed, leaving many trapped in and around the station. Aerial photographs published by one website showed a crush of bodies snaking towards the train station through metal barricades. About 176,000 passengers had been due to pass through the station on Monday alone. “There are too many people and it is too crowded,” one stranded passenger, who was not named, told state broadcaster CCTV.

Local media said the situation was so severe that authorities declared a “level two emergency” and deployed more than 2,600 security guards to watch over the throng. Guangzhou police chief Xie Xiaodan and Chen Rugui, a senior Communist party leader, were also dispatched to the scene in a bid to avert rioting and stampedes.

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