Beijing empties out as migrants head home for first ‘real’ CNY after Covid-19 pandemic – The Straits Times

BEIJING - Joggers, people walking their dogs and families out for a stroll after dinner are usually a common sight along Beijings Liangma River.

But there is hardly anyone in the area in recent days.

In the Chinese capital city, public parks, buses and subway trains have also become emptier, with traffic a breeze on Beijings Second Ring Road, which is notorious for jams on normal days.

Busy Beijing, a city of 22 million people, is finally taking a breather as migrants head home for what has been dubbed as Chinas first real Chinese New Year celebrations since the Covid-19 pandemic.

A 30-seater cafe along Liangma River, which usually draws customers from the surrounding office and residential buildings and foreign embassies, sold just two beverages on the morning of Feb 6.

Thats about 90 per cent lower than our usual sales, said waitress Li Feifei, 28, who added that the cafe is usually at its busiest in the morning.

We thought that the crowds would stay until at least a day before Chinese New Year eve, the day of the reunion dinner. But it seems like no one is in the mood to work, or they have sneaked back home.

The worlds largest annual human migration, Chinas yearly Chinese New Year travel rush, called chunyun, is expected to break records in 2024.

The number of trips over the 40-day travel period, from Jan 26 to March 5, is expected to hit a record nine billion via road, rail, water or air.

The figure would be nearly double that of the 4.07 billion chunyun trips in 2023.

The surge in travel comes a year after China finally lifted strict Covid-19 restrictions in late 2022.

Worries about new waves of infections had dampened travel sentiment during Chinese New Year in 2023.

For the upcoming Year of the Dragon, considered the most auspicious animal in the Chinese zodiac, little is stopping millions of Chinese from returning to their home towns or going on holidays to celebrate the spring festival.

A total of 480 million train trips, the main mode of transportation in China, are expected to be made across the country during chunyun a 38 per cent jump from 2023 and up 17 per cent from 2019 before the pandemic, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Baker Gao Yuan, 29, is really excited to return home to Karamay city in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in north-western China.

It would be her first trip home for Chinese New Year since she first came to Beijing for work in 2019. Worries about being banned from returning to the capital city, under the countrys zero-Covid curbs, had made her stay put previously.

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Beijing empties out as migrants head home for first 'real' CNY after Covid-19 pandemic - The Straits Times