Photos: Asia Prepares to Celebrate the Year of the Snake

February 1st, 2013

A Chinese girl with a face mask prepares to travel at the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China on January 31, 2013. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Lunar New Year travellers wait for their train at the West Railway Station in Beijing on January 31, 2013. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

On January 31, 2013, Lunar New Year travellers sleep aboard a train bound for the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing from Beijing, a journey of 32 hours. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

A conductor stands aboard a train carrying Lunar New Year travellers bound for Chongqing at the Baoding railway station in Hebei Province, south of Beijing on January 31, 2013. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

Two women look at a display of Lunar New Year items for sale at a street market in Hong Kong on January 31, 2013. (Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

Sea lion Jay paints a Chinese character meaning "serpent" at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo, Japan on January 3, 2013. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)

Lunar New Year decorations at the atrium in Plaza Singapura, a Singapore shopping center on January 14, 2013. (chooyutshing/flickr)

A woman displays two silver coins with designs of a snake (L) and the ancient southern town Hangtsun during a press conference at the Central Bank in Taipei, Taiwan on January 8, 2013. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images)

A model poses with a snake during a snake display to promote responsible breeding and pet ownership in Hong Kong on January 10, 2013. (Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

Since 2013 is the year of the snake, stalls are selling all types of snaky toys in Chinatown, Singapore on January 15, 2013. (chooyutshing/flickr)

A 108-meter-long snake sculpture made from 5,000 red cube-shaped lanterns illuminates Singapore's Chinatown for the Lunar New Year celebrations on January 30, 2013. (chooyutshing/flickr)

Holiday-themed dance performance by the Hangzhou Arts School from China at a shopping center in Singapore on January 23, 2013. (chooyutshing/flickr)

A figurine of the God of Wealth display at the Fu Lu Shou Complex in Singapore on January 29, 2013. (chooyutshing/flickr)

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The February 9 start of the Lunar New Year in East Asia is fast approaching, and snake-themed decorations are everywhere in honor of this year's titular animal. However, travel during the holiday season is laborious, and festivities are accompanied by long lines, sold-out tickets, crowded trains and stations, and uncomfortable train rides that last days. The spring travel period in China, or chunyun, begins about two weeks before the New Year and is said to comprise the world's largest single human migration.

This year, in addition to the usual travel nightmares, Beijing residents are lugging their baggage full of gifts through dangerous levels of pollution to get to the station. Ideally, by the time they return from relaxing with their relatives, the air will have improved from its currently severe levels of toxicity and opacity to its normal dull gray hue.

Click through the slideshow above to see the preparations underway as people travel home to celebrate.

Asia Society centers will be holding Lunar New Year events in Hong Kong on February 3, San Francisco on February 5, Houston on February 7, and New York on February 9.