Migrant mainland workers' happy homecoming

Tiny drops of rain sprinkle my face as I step outside the Shenzhen railway station hotel and into the dense crowd. It is 6am on Tuesday, February 5, and I am making my way to the nearby bus station. I have been told to wait for the K528, arriving from the remote new district of Pingshan in northeast Shenzhen. A text alerts me that my two travel companions have just arrived.

Struggling under the weight of several bags and sporting winter clothes as if the temperature had suddenly dropped to a Siberian level, Yuan Zhitong and his wife, Zhang Junmei , greet me with reserved smiles. The couple, both rural migrants working for a Japanese electronics components factory in Pingshan, are about to embark on their annual migration to spend the Lunar New Year with their loved ones, in Henan province. Armed with a camera and a microphone, I am going along.

Yuan and Zhang are two of what the China Labour Bulletin NGO estimates are the mainland's 242 million migrant workers. More than half are employed outside their home provinces, usually moving from less developed inner regions to the wealthy coastal settlements like Shanghai or Guangdong. For 30 years, this mass migration has not only helped build the coastal mega-cities, but also lifted rural incomes as the money flows home.

But this economic miracle comes at a price. To work in the cities, most families have to leave their children in the care of family members, often grandparents. The Lunar New Year is the only time that these millions can travel home to see their loved ones - and it can be a long, gruelling journey.

The long journey home - in pictures. See our gallery here

Yuan and Zhang left their 10-year-old son, Yuan Jinkang , with his grandparents when he was only three. The couple has been working in Shenzhen since 2007. "I feel very excited and happy. I look forward to coming back, I miss my parents and son a lot," Zhang tells me while we wait for our train.