Why would these crowds go to Hong Kong or Taiwan? How many people born and raised in Hong Kong or Taiwan with homes and families there live in mainland?

On the other hand, going home to mainland... do Taiwanese do so for New Year?

Not to the mainland, FROM the mainland.

Chunyun has no impact on Taiwan since it's purely a mainlanders thingy.

Taiwan is much smaller and easy to get around. Some folks do have to manage get say train tix to get home by CNY Eve and back for work before February 5th (aka Lunar January 6th this year). There are options as far as transportation goes, motorcycles, cars, buses, flights, or boats when applicable.

All the attractions and hot spots will definitely be crowded by the local since everyone has the same days off. Sightseeing during CNY holidays won't be as pleasant since crowd's everywhere. If tourists from HK, China, or elsewhere plan to join the local people during Chinese New Year holidays, just be prepared for some "people mountain people sea" experience.

I guess my question does not come across...
Let me make it really simple: Is Hongkong and/or Taiwan expensive and crowded during CNY?

Both are less expensive than during non holiday times. But why would you want to visit Asia during that time frame?

I was thinking of visiting the Philippines in February (next year), but need to find a point of access. Hong Kong or Taiwan seem to be as close as you can get with plenty of international (US) flight access.

DL flies to MNL from NRT and NGO connected from US. KE connects to MNL through ICN from US. So it is not necessary to go through HKG to get to MNL.

HKers will all be travelling and HK will be full of tourist from China.

The cancellation of Thailand tours/trips are with the HK travelers since Thailand is a popular destination for CNY vacation. HK travelers are a paranoid bunch with any not so good news from their intended destination.

DL and KE are very expensive in business class. However, it seems there are usually good deals to HKG.

I am replying to your post because you seem to have a stronger interest in Chinese trains than anyone else (that's a good thing).

My biggest fear this morning was not being able to get a taxi to bring me to the train station. So, I left early enough to make the journey on foot.

Fortunately, I managed to score a taxi (had to outrun an old lady; that's the way the ball bounces sometimes).

Upon arrival at the train station, I had no trouble finding the proper platform, and I sat on the floor in the boarding area until t-15.

Next, I got on the train, and bounced a guy from my seat (sorry about being the ugly American again).

It really did take 1:15 to go from Nanning to Fangchenggang for next to nothing (Y46 + 20 from Ctrip + 5 from the local kiosk); good work CRH!

The thing is that upon arrival, I realized that Fangchenggang isn't especially close to Vietnam (well, it is in technical terms).

As such, I took a taxi to the border (Y150, 1 hour; the driver didn't use the meter, but gave me 发票 for Y200 as a consolation prize).

I walked across the border and took a motorcycle tout from the Mong Cai checkpoint to the bus station.

5 hours later I arrived in Ha Long Bay.

While this might sound like a stupid way to spend a day, I enjoyed the experience.

Sounds like various small difficulties applied:
scoring a taxi did take outrunning an old lady (Nanning metro is not yet completed)
sitting in boarding area was on floor (did benches and seats not exist, or were they full?)
passengers needed to be bounced from seat on train (was it generally crowded on the train?)
1 hour road trip Fangchenggang-Mong Cai had to be on taxi where the continuation after Mong Cai was by bus (were scheduled buses missing on Chinese side?)

Did you find the Fangchenggang-Mong Cai-Ha Long route convenient? And was it a popular route?
Among other news: in 2012, the GDP per capita of Vietnam was 1753 US$, and that of Guangxi was 4427 $. In 2013, it was 4939 US$ in Guangxi.
Do any Vietnamese work in Guangxi and go home for New Year?

-Nanning's metro doesn't exist yet
-the train was pretty much full; I didn't want to sit in a middle seat, so I held my ground
-there were bus options between the train station and the border, but I felt Y150 for a taxi was okay
-I liked the train ride, but the 5 hours that followed were not especially cool
-nobody else seems to do the same drill

Have been in the Nanjing Airport since 7am..flight was supposed to take off 2 hours ago..still delayed. "Extreme Fog", flights just started boarding, but nothing for me. At least I got some food/drinks, and comfy seats in the King's Lounge (*A Gold)

Image deleted because of poor quality.

But, suffice it to say, my wait for a taxi was less than 30 seconds.

Full of tourists from China: Macau too.
Rescheduled a holiday from BKK - +1 ostensibly pointed to the scary travel warnings and whinged how unhappy her parents are going to be - but she's just trying to avoid my mother who decided to gatecrash on us instead of dropping in on my brother's family as she was scheduled to (my mother went and is back without a scratch).

Actually I don't mind Macau if I have to take a short Chinese New Year holiday (which I have to do if Chinese New Year day falls before 10 February - this is due to the nature of my line of work). On Chinese New Year's eve and the first day of the new year you have the city to yourself - Mainland Chinese are traditionally obliged to stay at home for Chinese New Year day.

It only become a zoo in the afternoon of the second day, when you have to worry about where's you next taxi and are you going to make to dinners and ferries on time.

Someone's been launching fireworks on the runway again...