This TED Talk features media executive Gary Liu, recorded live at TED 2018.

Once every 12 months, the world's largest human migration happens in China.

Over the 40-day travel period of Chinese New Year, three billion trips are taken,

as families reunite and celebrate. Now, the most strenuous of these trips are taken by families reunite and celebrate.

Now, the most strenuous of these trips are taken by the country's 290 million migrant workers,

for many of whom this is the one chance a year to go home and see parents and they're left behind

children. But their travel options are very limited. Plane tickets cost nearly half of their monthly

salary, so most of them, they choose the train. Their average journey is 700 kilometers. The average

travel time is 15 and a half hours. And the country's tracks now have to handle 390 million

travelers every spring festival.

Until recently, migrant workers would have to queue for long hours,

sometimes days just to buy tickets,

often only to be fleeced by scalpers.

And they still had to deal with near-stampede conditions

when Travel Day finally arrived.

But technology has started to ease this experience. Mobile and digital tickets now account for

70% of sales, greatly reducing the lines at train stations. Digital ID scanners have replaced

manual checks expediting the boarding process, and artificial intelligence is deployed across

the network

to optimize travel routes.

New solutions have been invented.

China's largest taxi-hailing platform,

...