Living in the most populous country on earth one sees some pretty large crowds. On a normal night, some Chinese shopping districts can feel like a mall in the United States or Britain the week before Christmas.

Public transport frequently plays host to large numbers of people. Once I was in a subway station so jam-packed that my travel companion, who weighed less than 100 pounds (that’s about 45 kilos), was literally lifted off the ground and transported several feet by the other passengers.

The biggest crowd I have ever seen in several years in China, though, was the mass of humanity that is now gathered outside the Guangzhou train station.

Freakish, unseasonable weather has hobbled China’s train system at exactly the wrong time - days before the Lunar Near Year - and tens of thousands of stranded peasants-turned-proletariat who planned to go home to celebrate China’s biggest holiday are stranded.

The road in front of the station has been closed and is occupied by a sea of people - sitting on baggage, smoking cigarettes, playing cards, peeling oranges, nibbling on nuts, stomping their feet to stay warm, drinking white lightning, anything and everything to pass the time.

When I saw them on Monday, many had been there 24 hours already. On Tuesday, a Reuters photographer reported that the crowd had abated a bit, but was still huge. The weather, meanwhile, remained cold and wet. Food vendors had come. Mobile cell phone antenna trucks had rolled in to support the extra load. Many travellers were prepared to stay as long as it takes. (I did not see any portable loos, though.)

Faced with bad weather that won’t quit and such a huge crowd, the authorities are trying to manage expectations.

By the time I got there on Monday, the Guangdong rail bureau had stopped selling tickets and loudspeakers urged passengers to return the tickets they were holding, offering a full refund. Wang Yang, the Guangdong Communist Party chief, visited on Sunday and told a migrant worker he hoped the man would be able to make it home for the holiday, but to prepare to stick around if need be.

Then, on Tuesday, the state news agency Xinhua ran this story:

Many migrants have already returned their tickets and trudged back to factory dorms, resigned to ringing in the ”Year of the Rat” away from family. But most were still hopeful, waiting in the cold rain.

Is the next step to force the migrant workers to give up family reunion plans in order to disperse the crowd? What would the consequences of that be?

If I were a Chinese leader, I’d be praying for warmer weather - and brainstorming for ways to convince those waiting for trains to voluntarily give up one of the most cherished traditions in China.

Pictures by Jason Lee/Reuters