Sardines on the subway

I haven't been on the Beijing subway that much in the past week, but every time I have, it's been absolutely heaved out - even at usually non-peak times like the middle of the afternoon.  Strange.   And the majority of the passengers seem to be swarthy peasant types toting huge wheelie bags and laundry sacks.   We're all supposed to have been back at work for nearly a week now, so it seems a bit late for people to be still on holiday, or only just getting back from holiday.   But.... well, when there's a mass exodus of the ming gong, the city's migrant workers, (as regularly happens during the big traditional holiday of Spring Festival) their leaving and coming back can be spread out over days, if not weeks (we're talking about some hundreds of thousands of people, at the very least; during the frenzy of construction prior to the Olympics, it was very probably in the millions).  It looks as if that's what's going on now.  But the ming gong don't usually leave in large numbers during National Week - because it's a non-traditional holiday, and because most of them can't afford to; usually they can only manage one decent break per year - at best - and nearly all of them scrimp and save so that they can do that for the traditional week (or more) of family reunion around the Spring Festival.   So, I wonder, were they all booted out of the city, to 'sanitize' the environment for the colossal 'I Heart The Commie Party' lovefest we've just had to endure?  I hadn't heard anything about it in the news.... but then, you wouldn't, would you?  That's certainly what it looks like.