万花筒2008-02-01:Storms cause chaos in China（在线收听）

Storms have stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters at railway stations.

It is the world’s new superpower forced to a standstill. And there are millions, they are waiting and waiting, with no way out, the young, and the old, and the desperate.

“Can you help us, we want to go out”

And with each passing day, tensions rise, and sometimes they spill over. But the army is here to marshal the migrant workers who all year fuel the factories that make our high streets cheap and are now denied their one moment of freedom.

In this one Province there are 19 million migrant workers, so how desperate would you be if this was your one holiday of the year. Well, this week no one is going anywhere.

Not much has moved in this massive country for days. The heaviest snowfall for 50 years has crippled communications and paralyzed power supplies, all this on the eve of the Chinese New Year when tens of millions go home to see their families, a situation so serious, that the Prime Minister has been out to calm the crowds.

Apologizing and promising swift action.

But crowds this size make the Communist nervous. At the railway station, there are queues to join in queues and growing frustration.

This man tells us he hasn’t seen his wife and children for three years and fears he will miss them for a fourth. A couple say their wedding will be canceled if they can’t get home. Others we find behind locked gates, complain they’ve been effectively imprisoned.

“Yes, very cold and hungry, very hungry, and angry, yes, very angry and hungry ”"and angry and hungry?" "yes, yes." Tonight, more migrant workers will march to the station, but still there are no trains to catch and no way home.