3, 2, 1 … Chinese New Year holidaymakers head off for far horizons
- People plan to make the most of the three-day break by taking to the roads, rails and skies
- But beware of travel disruptions caused by heavy fog and haze, weather authorities warn
And while the break is just three days and haze may be blanketing much of China, travellers appear keen to venture beyond their provincial borders to soak up the sights in other parts of the country.
Holidaymakers were expected to take more than 15 million domestic rail trips on Saturday, the first day of the break, up 60 per cent on the same time in 2020, Shanghai-based The Paper reported, quoting China State Railway Group.
A number of new high-speed rail lines is expected to ramp up tourism along the lines, including along the new section from Huangshan in Anhui province to Nanchang in Jiangxi, and between Guangzhou and Shantou, both in Guangdong province.
The number of domestic flights is also on the rise, with 49,000 expected to take off over the three days. The total is about 85 per cent higher than the same period last year and roughly 3 per cent more than in 2019, according to the report.
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Online travel company Trip.com said more than half of the domestic tour reservations booked for Saturday were for people travelling outside their home provinces.
More people were heading to China’s snow country, while overall, theme parks, museums, zoos, and ski resorts were the most popular attractions, the company said.
However, weather authorities warned holidaymakers to be prepared for disruptions to their travel plans, with heavy fog and haze expected in eight provinces in the north, west and south of the country.
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More people are also looking further afield.
The National Immigration Administration predicted that about 1.56 million trips would be made across the border during the New Year’s Day holiday, a fivefold increase on a year earlier – when the country was in the grip of Covid-19 – and 90 per cent higher than in 2019.
Hong Kong leads the list of top destinations for mainland Chinese holidaymakers, followed by Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Australia and Britain, according to Trip.com.
Kandy He, an operations manager at an advertising company in the southern city of Guangzhou, said she was heading to Hong Kong to spend the holiday with her family.
