Watch the world's largest annual human migration in real time with this amazing map

Every year in China sets new records for the planet's biggest yearly human migration, as a quarter of the world's population heads home to ring in the Lunar New Year with loved ones. 

The (in)famous Chunyun period (春運) typically starts a fortnight before New Year's Eve and lasts forty days and nights, over which the country is inundated with images of thronging masses hurrying from wherever they work back to their home towns to be reunited with their families on the most important date on the Chinese calendar. 

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The extreme congestion witnessed over the holiday season has its dark side as well, with citizens desperately clamoring to get hold of train tickets only to traverse the length of the country in miserably cramped conditions. The mad rush also produces a spate of tragic traffic accidents - last year, 451 people died on Chinese roads as they made their way home.

Beijing-based tech company Baidu has been tracking every one of the 3.6 billion trips made in the country over this period to put together this amazing map of the Chunyun phenomenon. Here's everything it's told us so far about Chunyun '15.

Most traveled routes:

1. Shanghai - Lu'an, Anhui
2. Shanghai - Chaohu, Anhui
3. Shanghai - Fuyang, Anhui
4. Shenzhen, Guangdong - Chongqing
5. Beijing - Zhoukou, Henan
6. Tianjin - Dezhou, Shandong
7. Shanghai - Hefei, Anhui
8. Beijing - Dezhou, Shandong
9. Beijing - Harbin, Heilongjiang
10. Shanghai - Anqing, Anhui

Busiest airports:

1. Beijing Capital International Airport 
2. Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport
3. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
4. Shanghai Pudong International Airport
5. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport
6. Kunming Changshui International Airport
7. Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport
8. Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport
9. Haikou Meilan International Airport
10. Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport

Busiest railway stations:

1. Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station
2. Beijing West Railway Station
3. Guangzhou South Railway Station
4. Hankou Railway Station
5. Zhengzhou Railway Station
6. Hangzhou East Railway Station
7. Beijing South Railway Station
8. Wuchan Railway Station
9. Beijing Railway Station
10. Shenzhen North Railway Station

Main destination cities:

1. Chongqing
2. Beijing
3. Ganzhou, Jiangxi
4. Yulin, Guangxi
5. Shanghai
6. Fuyang, Anhui
7. Shangrao, Jiangxi
8. Guigang, Guangxi
9. Wuhan, Hubei
10. Zhoukou, Henan

Main cities of origin:

1. Beijing
2. Shanghai
3. Shenzhen, Guangdong
4. Guangzhou, Guangdong
5. Dongguan, Guangdong
6. Chongqing
7. Hangzhou, Zhejiang
8. Tianjin
9. Foshan, Guangdong
10. Ningbo, Zhejiang

To view the map in real time, as it's updated every 4-8 hours and the data listed above constantly changes, click here. 

[Images via Baidu Qianxi]