China’s Rush to get Home

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Last Friday, Spring Festival 2023 ended, millions of Chinese began the long road home to be back at work Saturday. We take a quick look in pictures.

Of course, not everyone was back. China restructured its leave policy several years ago. Where once, the entire country pretty much all took the same National holidays at the same time, the law was amended to allow people to manage their own leave. So today there is more flexibility as to when to take leave and for how many days. Many Chinese, especially white collar workers, did not come back till Monday.

There will be many who will tack a few extra days onto their Spring Festival holiday. especially those who have “Flown South” to the, relatively, warmer Asian neighbour states. But for most Chinese we know, the optimum time to extend their break is summer.

If you are keen to know more about China’s holidays you will find China Highlights useful. There you will find not only a calendar of holidays and events but also a wealth of information detailing not just the holidays, but what is open and what is closed.
We have copied an excerpt below:

2023 Date	Holiday Name	Holiday	Remarks
Jan. 1	New Year’s Day	Dec. 31 – Jan. 2
Jan. 22	Spring Festival	Jan. 21 – 27	Chinese New Year, China’s biggest festival
Apr. 5	Qingming Festival	Apr. 5	Tomb Sweeping Day
May 1	Labor Day	Apr. 29 – May 3	A ‘golden week’ for tourism
Jun. 22	Dragon Boat Festival	Jun. 22–24	People eat sticky rice dumplings and attend dragon boat races.
Sep. 29	Mid-Autumn Festival	Sep. 29–Oct. 1	Mooncake Festival
Oct. 1	National Day	Sep. 30–Oct. 6	Another ‘golden week’ for tourism

China Braces for Post-Holiday Travel Rush

Passengers wait to board their trains Friday in Hangzhou East Railway Station in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Photo: VCG

Transport hubs across the country are preparing for the multitudes of travellers returning home following the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which ends Friday. Railway stations and airports are expected to be inundated with people, with Thursday already seeing more than 43 million passengers on trains, planes and ships — an increase of 86% from the same period last year.