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Holiday travelers held up as trains, planes delayed
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THE worst cold snap in years disrupted travel plans yesterday as millions of Chinese embarked on journeys home on the first of the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush.
Students, migrant workers and others boarded trains, buses and planes to head home for the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on February 8.
Their trips were affected by the worst cold in decades, which caused snow and blizzards in eastern and southern provinces. Railway authorities in the eastern city of Nanjing said at least 38 trains were delayed.
At Hangzhou airport, authorities said flights might be delayed because of the ice. The airport expected to handle 80,000 passengers yesterday.
“The Spring Festival travel rush means a bigger workload, and this year the cold weather has kept us busier,” said Liu Ying, a train attendant on the Shanghai-Nanjing express rail service.
Road traffic and flights were also disrupted in Yunnan Province. Since late Saturday, more than 11,000 passengers had been stranded at Kunming airport.
China’s transport authorities forecast that more than 2.9 billion trips will be made around the country during the 40-day travel period.
Motorcyclists were also on the move yesterday. Clad in helmets, masks, thick gloves, raincoats, knee guards and layers of plastic bags around their legs, dozens of workers started their journeys from Guangdong Province, where they work, to neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Wang Tianzhang said he got up at 4am yesterday for a tiring two-day ride with his wife and fellow workers. They work in Foshan in Guangdong, and their hometown is a village in Hechi in Guangxi.
A train ride takes about 20 hours and requires several transfers. For them, riding motorbikes is more convenient and cost-effective.
“The weather got worse as we headed toward Guangxi. It was freezing, and we had to stop every hour to find some warmth,” Wang said.
Traffic police in Wuzhou in Guangxi said they expect to see 200,000 motorcycles this year. Eight service stations have been set up to provide repair services for them.
In eastern and northeastern China, where more high-speed rail routes operate, traffic pressure has eased this year.
A high-speed railway linking Shanghai with the northern city of Harbin takes about 12 hours, about half the travel time for a slower train.
Yang Cuikun, an official with the Nanjing railway authority, said changes in the lifestyles of migrant workers have helped.
“More migrant workers have settled in cities and no longer go back to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year. They are also choosing employment near their hometowns as wages in eastern provinces lose their appeal,” he said.
At a filling station in Wuzhou, motorcyclist Zhou Xiaodi squeezed water out of his soaking gloves.
“Going home has never been easy,” he said. “In a few years, I will save enough money to find a job near my home and then I’ll be able to stay close to my family.”
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