Massive waves of humanity were travelling on Friday for the Chinese New Year holiday — an annual movement of hundreds of millions of people that’s much larger than the migration inspired by the Muslim hajj.
Travellers bound for home or vacation were streaming into airports, train stations and highways in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China for the weeklong festival, which begins on Sunday when the Lunar New Year starts.
China’s government said it expects people will take a total of two billion journeys — including plane, train, ship and automobile trips — during the 40 days around the holiday. To avoid the travel crunch, millions of people — mostly migrant workers — began heading home weeks ago.
Chinese transportation officials estimate that about four million people per day will be riding the rails during the month-long travel period.
Train tickets were in great demand and those who couldn’t get their hands on one took to the highways in vans and coaches for cheaper — but more dangerous — journeys. Police stopping a coach in the province of Zhejiang found 113 people squeezed into space that was meant only for 40 passengers, Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po reported.
Taiwan
In Taiwan, another mass migration was kicking off on the island of 23-million people. About 7,5-million Taiwanese — or nearly one-third of the island’s population — are travelling home or going on holiday in the next few days, officials said.
”The spring festival is one of the most important festivals of the year, and everyone wants to get home for family reunion as early as possible,” said Transport Minister Kuo Yao-chi.
Highways are expected to be so crowded that only cars taking at least three passengers will be allowed. Mobile toilets have been installed along the way for travellers caught in the snarled traffic.
Taking a bathroom break on cramped trains in mainland China can also be difficult. Some savvy travellers are packing adult diapers to avoid queuing outside the often stinking toilets. Diaper sales have been soaring at supermarkets, Chinese media reported this week.
The movement of people dwarfs the hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia required at least once in a lifetime for able-bodied Muslims who can afford it. The official count for this year’s hajj was about 2,3-million pilgrims, but the unregistered participants likely brought it up to more than three million.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, many holiday-makers cheered by a recovering economy have packed up for short getaway trips to mainland China or abroad. Officials expect 6,5-billion people — a number close to the total population of the city — to leave or enter the border over the holidays.
Long queues snaked through the city’s busy airport on Friday morning, as a record 870 flights were expected to depart or arrive — up 12% from the average daily flight numbers.
The Lunar New Year is also the only time of year when direct flights are permitted between Taiwan and China. Regular direct flights were suspended more than five decades ago, when the rivals split amid civil war. Tens of thousands of Taiwanese living in China are now being allowed to fly home on the annual direct flights.
On Friday, 250 Taiwanese flew to Beijing on a jet decorated with the popular ”Hello Kitty” image.
”There will be terrible traffic jams in Taiwan, so I want to spend the New Year in Beijing,” one woman, who wasn’t identified, told Taiwan’s TVBS cable news station.
In Shanghai, throngs of Taiwanese gathered at the airport to take the more readily available indirect flights home. Tickets for these flights were sold out up to two months ago.
Computer technician Keith Lin said he left home six hours ahead of his flight to Taipei via Macau — two hours earlier than usual in case of long waits.
”It’s not as crowded as it used to be,” said Lin (26). ”Could be all the people have taken the charter flights.” — Sapa-AP
Associated Press correspondents Audra Ang in Beijing, Chris Bodeen in Shanghai and Annie Huang in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report