More and more people like 26-year-old Ann Yang and her six relatives from Hunan province have returned train tickets that would have taken them home for the Chinese New Year holiday from the southern province of Guangdong amid China's worst snowstorms in decades.

The bad weather has knocked out power, forced road closures, delayed flights and crippled train lines across the country at the worst time possible - days before the biggest holiday of the year.

Thousands of would-be travellers, many of them migrant labourers, have been forced to make the painful decision to abandon plans to make what for most is a once-a-year trip home to be with family, and retreat to their factory dormitories instead.

For days, tens of thousands of people have massed in front of the Guangzhou train station, the province's main hub, awaiting news and hoping to get home.

The authorities have put many of them up at temporary shelters around town, including an exhibition centre where China's biggest trade fair takes place twice a year.

The government has also been trying to convince people to return their tickets and stay put in Guangdong.

'Why not stay for Chinese New Year, Guangdong is your home!' blared the front-page headline of a popular Guangzhou tabloid.

At a ticket return centre, Ms Yang and her relatives waited for a free bus ride to the city of Shunde, where some of them worked in an electronics factory.

'Every year I've been with my family for Chinese New Year, so doing it here just won't feel right,' she lamented.

China has upwards of 200 million migrant labourers who travel from the countryside to cities for work. Guangdong has nearly 30 million migrant workers, more than any other province.

Internal migration has underpinned China's economic expansion and helped turn places like the Pearl River Delta into workshops of the world.

Factories in boom towns such as Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhongshan, producing everything from toiletries to tables, are overwhelmingly populated by workers from elsewhere - places like Sichuan, Henan and Hunan - for whom the work beats eking out a living in a village.

For most, the Chinese New Year holiday is the only chance to see their spouse, parents and children. Some 15 million migrants in Guangdong were expected to travel home for the week-long break, a local newspaper reported.

Ms Yang spent an entire day dialling a booking service more than a week ago to get tickets for herself and her relatives. 'It's like Christmas in other countries,' said Ms Yang, who hails from the town of Xiangxiang.

'The atmosphere at home is wonderful. Older people give younger people good luck money. My parents make so many good things to eat, all laid out on the table at once.'

Earlier, she had talked to relatives in Hunan who were optimistic because they caught a glimpse of the sun on Tuesday. But it snowed again yesterday.

'Our hopes are up and down,' she said. 'We are still holding out some hope of going back if the railroad is cleared. '

At least one man is hoping to benefit from those people returning their tickets.

'I couldn't buy a ticket before, but I hope with all the people returning their tickets, someone will sell me one now,' said Mr Ding Ming, who is eager to return to his home town in Chongqing, 30 hours away by train, to see his wife and 10-year-old child.

Mr Luo Qunyi, 35, a construction worker from Hunan who is stranded in Guangdong, said: 'My 12-year-old daughter just called and said, 'Daddy, when are you coming back? You promised to be here yesterday.'

'It just breaks your heart.'

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LOS ANGELES TIMES