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The Spring Festival is commonly known as the Chinese lunar new year which originated from ancient time and demonstrates hope and reunion in the Chinese culture.
Celebrations begin on the new year’s eve and will last for 15 days. The Chinese people who work far away from home always travel thousand miles back to their home towns to reunite with their families, making it one of the world’s largest annual migrations named Spring Travel.
They celebrate it by putting on new clothes, making dumplings, preparing traditional cuisine, shooting off fireworks and watching the annual Spring Festival Gala together with the families until the lantern festival taking place on the 15th day of the first lunar month, which marks the end of the new year celebration.
The Spring Festival is also observed by many Asian countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, North Korea, South Korea and Vietnam at the same time each year as in China and is seen as a symbol for a new beginning and a joyful time of a year.
These celebrations bring a festive atmosphere in the first month of the year across the region and an opportunity for tourists to explore the culture of Asian countries.
Recently, based on the scientific assessments on the Omicron, especially it is much less pathogenic and deadly, China has optimised its Covid-19 response measures.
The focus of optimised policy has shifted from stemming infections to preventing severe cases and caring for health.
Mass nucleic acid testing have no longer been carried out, quarantine measures against people with a Covid-19 infection have been dropped, close contacts have no longer been identified and designating of high-risk and low-risk area have been stopped.
The upcoming Spring Festival this year has been expected by the Chinese people for a long time since the adjustment of the Covid-19 virus prevention and control policies.
Since then, millions of people are planning for reunion with their families and going for a trip with their family members who just recovered from Covid-19.
Based on the statistics from a Chinese travel agency, the number of instant searches for air and train tickets have surged exponentially since the release of a series measures to ease the travel rules.
According to the coverage by the Chinese media, this year’s Spring Travel is expected to surge 99.5 percent from the same period last year to reach nearly 2.1 billion.
The local government of China and Chinese enterprises have jointly launched a series of active measures to revive the tourism market, so as to fully attract tourists and release the potential of tourism consumption during the New Year’s Day holiday.
The average occupancy rates of the tourist hotels in top cities have exceeded largely from the previous time and tourism revenue are about to reach a new height.
People’s consumption willingness and travel expectations were shifting from caution to a more optimistic direction, which will inject impetus to the recovery of the economy in the upcoming year.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is doing its best to prevent severe illness and treat Covid-19 patients in critical condition.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on January 7th underscored epidemic response during the Spring Festival travel rush.
Hospitals and clinics have coordinated front-line workers, medicines and medical equipment, rolled out targeted response measures for the vulnerable and refined the protocol pertaining to patient triage in a bid to protect the life and health of the people to the fullest extent.
Most of the Chinese people are full of confident that they will have a safe and pleasant holiday!
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter