The first day of the Spring Festival on the mainland is highlighted by the coldness in various places. Photo shows Shanghai on Jan. 28, 2021. (Screenshot from Weibo)
January 28, the first day of the Spring Festival (homecoming) on the mainland, was a cold day at airports and stations across the country, with massive cancellations of domestic flights and trains. This year, a large number of mainland migrant workers were unable to return Home during the Chinese New Year, and they are under pressure from both the Chinese Communist Party‘s official “New Year in Place” and quarantine measures.
According to data released by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism on the 28th, on the first day of the Spring Festival, the country is expected to send 19.11 million passengers, less than 30% of last year’s first day of the Spring Festival.
In terms of aviation, as of 12:00 noon on the first day of the Spring Festival, about 52% of mainland domestic flights were cancelled, totaling about 7,638, including cancellations on the same day.
Mainland railroads sent about 4 million passengers on the first day of the Spring Festival, down 66% from last year, with the most affected trains coming in and out of Beijing, and a large number of trains in northeast and north China also suspended.
Air ticket prices plummeted Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail one-third stop
Data from the Civil Aviation Administration showed that passenger volumes during this year’s Spring Festival were down nearly 50 percent from 2019. The number of passengers at Beijing Capital Airport dropped 60% compared to the same period last year.
A Weibo user said, “On the first day of the Spring Festival in 2021, Shenzhen airport was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop on the ground, and the noisy Shenzhen has never been so quiet.”
Domestic airfares have subsequently plummeted. Data from travel platform Ctrip.com showed that airfares for specific Time slots from Beijing to Sanya and Shanghai to Chengdu even saw discounts close to 1 percent; fares for routes from Beijing to Chongqing and Shanghai to Guangzhou dropped by more than 60 percent.
In addition, about one-third of the trains in both directions of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway are out of service.
Beijing West Station, known as the “big station for migrant workers”, informed that the passenger flow on the first day of Spring Festival was 25,000, 87% less than the same period last year; the first train from Beijing to Chongqing in the early morning of the 28th could carry more than 1,200 people, but only 283 tickets were sold in the end.
Data from Shanghai Hongqiao Station showed that 100,000 passengers were sent on the 28th, a quarter of last year’s number; Hangzhou Station sent 130,000 passengers, 45% less than last year; Hefei South Station was one-third less than last year.
The Chinese Communist Party “New Year in place” has turned into a task working people encounter two difficulties
The Spring Festival 2021 will run from January 28 to March 8. Many foreign workers choose not to go home for the Chinese New Year because they face the double pressure of “spending the New Year locally” and quarantine measures.
The Apple Daily quoted a telecom company worker in Beijing as saying, “They are not allowed to go back here, and they are not allowed to go back there”.
Up to now, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Guizhou and other provinces (cities) proposed “local New Year”, for example, Shanghai explicitly asked people to “not leave Shanghai unless necessary”.
The Chinese Communist Party has proposed to “spend New Year’s Eve locally”. (Screenshot from Weibo)
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Ms. Ma, a native of Heilongjiang who lives in Beijing, said, “I can’t stay home for long. The nucleic acid test is not a big deal in many places, but if it’s a high-risk area, you can’t get out, and if you can’t get out, your work will be affected, so he won’t go back.”
According to another Guangzhou resident Mr. Huang, there are also many foreign workers home, they are rushing to leave before the Spring Festival, many factories take an early holiday.
He said, “There’s not much left in Guangzhou these two days. Many factories have stopped running. The roads are much emptier than usual. It’s colder than before because they’re all on early vacation now.” “Now it is stipulated that the 28th back home are required to do nucleic acid testing, but also isolation, that is, if you return home from a high-risk area, the Family are not allowed to enter, it must be isolated. Many workers are to avoid this trouble, are early to return home before the 28th, to avoid having to undergo nucleic acid testing.”
In addition, there is also chaos in terms of tickets. Some people bought high-speed train tickets before they were informed that the trains were suspended and needed to be refunded; others said that some high-speed train schedules were cancelled due to lack of passenger traffic, but the 20 percent refund fee was not waived.
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