Spring Festival travel rush underway
More than 9.93 million passenger trips are expected to be made on trains departing Beijing in the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush which started on Saturday. That's according to the China Railway Beijing Group, which is in charge of rail operations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well as parts of east China's Shandong Province, central Henan Province, and northern Shanxi. The group said it expects to handle nearly 21.6 million trips in those regions during the travel rush. To try to ensure healthy travel for its passengers, the group said it has provided free over-the-counter medicines to passengers in need and has also been disinfecting waiting rooms, ticket halls, carriages, and other public places. The North China Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China said that Beijing's two main airports will see the number of incoming and outgoing flights surge 44 percent from last year during the Lunar New Year travel rush. It estimates that 62,000 flights will arrive at or depart from the Beijing Capital International Airport and the Daxing International Airport during the 40-day period. The two airports are expecting the peak-travel period to start on January 14, with daily inbound and outbound flights handled by the two airports topping 1,700. The Transportation Ministry has estimated that over two billion trips will be made during the Spring Festival period, nearly double the number of last year, and 70 percent of the volume in 2019 before the pandemic began. Many Chinese are also expected to start travelling abroad, a long-awaited shift for tourist spots in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, though several governments - worried about the Covid spike on the mainland - are imposing curbs on travellers from China. Travel will not quickly return to pre-pandemic levels, analysts say, due to factors such as a dearth of international flights. China on Sunday also resumed issuing passports and travel visas for mainland residents, and ordinary visas and residence permits for foreigners. Videos posted on Chinese social media showed workers at Shanghai's Pudong airport overnight taking down bright blue boards marking routes through its international terminal to enforce a regime that required travellers from abroad to quarantine for up to eight days upon arrival. The 40-day travel rush started on January 7 and ends on February 15. (Xinhua and agencies)