China's Long (holiday) March

It promises to be one of the greatest migrations in the history of humanity. Not Muslim pilgrims on the hajj, but record numbers of Chinese holidaymakers heading for their ancestral homes to celebrate the start of the Year of the Monkey next Thursday.

The government estimates that 1.9 billion journeys will be made in the next three weeks as the world' s most populous nation goes on Asia's biggest holiday.

The vast majority are domestic trips back to their rural homes by the hundreds of millions of migrant labourers on the production lines and construction sites that have powered China's spectacular economic growth. But rising urban incomes and relaxed passport regulations have also prompted a surge in the number of international journeys - a source of mixed feelings among government officials who fear that Beijing's overseas image could be hurt by the spitting, littering, queue-jumping and noisy chatter they blame some Chinese tourists for.

Last year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported a government education campaign to address tourist habits that, it said, "seriously marred China's international reputation", such as chatting noisily on planes, ignoring no-smoking signs and spitting in the street.

The exodus has already begun. In recent days, long lines have formed outside travel agencies. Stations and airports are packed with holidaymakers. During the three-week holiday period, the transport ministry forecasts that 1.7 billion journeys will be made by bus, 137 million by train, 26 million by boat and 10.5 million by air.

Most people will be heading home for whatever new year customs are traditional in their region. In the north, mountains of dumplings will be consumed. In the south, people will tuck into sweet rice cakes. Outside the cities, the nights will echo with the sound of firecrackers, while red lanterns, fairy lights and monkey decorations will brighten up streets and homes. Everywhere, television viewers will be tuning into a live song and dance extravaganza that has become as much a part of the new year festival as wishing family and friends good luck.

But an increasingly mobile middle class is looking beyond such customs and heading to more exotic destinations. According to the government, the number of air journeys this year will increase by 9.6%. Although new year trips to sunshine resorts are fairly new, the China Travel Service says its tours to the Maldives and Pacific islands have sold out.

Zhang Wen, a professor in the tourism management department of Beijing Second Foreign Language University, said people's perceptions of the holiday were changing. "They are thinking of different ways of celebrating, rather than just following the tradition to stay with the family," he said. "It's a sign that living standards are improving.

"It is not just at new year that China is on the move. Since 1998, the number of overseas travellers has almost doubled, to 16.6 million.

While the number is still only a fraction of China's 1.3 billion population, the trend is skywards. With the economy growing at more than 7% per year and formerly stringent travel restrictions slowly being lifted, the World Tourist Organisation predicts that more than 100 million Chinese will head overseas in 2020. This would put them ahead of Americans and Japanese as the world's biggest travellers.

"China has huge potential," said Charlie Li, the Visit Britain representative in Beijing. "Every tourist organisation in the world is trying to get a piece of the action."

But the movement of people is also a source of alarm. Government officials, academics and travel industry workers have expressed concern about the behaviour of first-time Chinese tourists who are unused to the different norms of the countries they visit.

Experienced travellers are clearly sensitive to criticism, usually made domestically, that people from rural areas are uneducated and behave as if they are on a farm.

"The first time I flew overseas, I was so embarrassed by the racket made by my fellow Chinese travellers on the plane," said Song Yankun, a Beijing teacher. "They were very excited because they were from the countryside. But I felt I had lost face as a Chinese."

Such cultural slips are certainly not restricted to Chinese peasants. On New Year's Day, more than a few foreign residents in Beijing are expected to commit such faux pas as sweeping their homes (seen as brushing out the bad luck that is expected at this time of the year), giving a friend something sharp (seen as cutting the ties of friendship) or opening a present in front of the giver (considered impolite).