Freezing wintry weather across central and eastern China is putting a damper on the mass Lunar New Year travel rush, as hundreds of millions of people take to the roads, railways and air to make it home in time to welcome the Year of the Dragon on Feb. 9.
Highway traffic in the central provinces of Hunan and Hubei slowed to a crawl as freezing rain, snow and ice lashed the region, with hundreds of trains canceled and flights delayed, state media reported.
The weather comes at the peak of the New Year travel rush, with an estimated nine billion journeys predicted by transportation authorities over the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday period.
Jiemian News reported that Wuhan’s Tianhe Airport was only operating at 20% of capacity on Feb. 4, with hundreds of flights delayed at short notice.
At least two people have died in accidents due to the snowy conditions, according to state media cited by Reuters. Both were crushed under market awnings that collapsed under the weight of recently fallen snow.
Social media users uploaded video clips of conditions as people tried to make it home for family reunions on Lunar New Year’s Eve, with one clip showing passengers trapped on a train for hours after it suffered a power outage in freezing temperatures.
“It’s snowing harder now, and I’m stuck in the highway service area on my way home,” said one driver in a clip uploaded to the Zhangwen Video channel on the video-sharing platform Bilibili.
The driver, who was making an 800-km (500 miles) trip from Wuxi back to his family home in Henan’s Puyang, said a trip that should only have taken 10 to 11 hours wound up taking 17 due to the weather.
A driver surnamed Wang on the Jingzhou section of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway told The Paper news site that he had been stuck there for 18 hours.
“I got here at 5 p.m. [on Feb. 3] and it hasn’t moved at all since then,” the driver said. “In terms of fuel, I’m not doing too badly, with three-quarters of a tank left in a car like mine. I still have a small amount of snacks, but no water.”
Stranded for several days
A truck driver surnamed Kang told the Home of the Webmaster social media account that he had started boiling snow after being stranded on the Jingshan section of the Xuguang Expressway for more than 30 hours.
The Ministry of Transport said that more than 200 stretches of highway had been shut down across 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities as of 8 p.m. on Feb. 4, affecting more than 13,800 kilometers of highway.
The China Youth Daily reported on the plight of Li Ke, en route from Shenzhen for Hubei who had been stuck on the highway for nearly 70 hours, until late on Feb. 4.
“I didn’t expect the freeze to be so serious this time,” she told the paper.
Another driver was reportedly trapped in a car for three days amid the travel chaos, according to the Yicai news service.
China's Ministry of Emergency Management has called for "all-out efforts" to deal with sudden disasters and prevent casualties and major property losses due to the weather, the Global Times newspaper reported.
The National Meteorological Center issued an orange blizzard warning on Saturday, warning of heavy snow and freezing rain in some parts of southeastern Henan, most of Hubei, central and northern Anhui, central Jiangsu, northern Hunan, eastern Chongqing, and northern Guizhou.
It followed that up with warnings of strong winds, heavy fog and freezing temperatures on Sunday, according to the agency’s official social media accounts.
The authorities have shipped out 40,000 items of central disaster relief materials including padded coats and quilts, to Hubei and Anhui provinces to help those affected by the sudden drop in temperatures, the paper said, adding that the weather conditions are the worst in around 15 winters.
“[The weather] is likely to place extra strain on travel for millions over the next few days during the Spring Festival travel rush,” it said.
‘Almost total paralysis’
U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said the government needs to do more to warn people of the dangers of traveling in extreme weather.
“There are huge issues with public management in China,” Tang said. “If there’s a snowstorm, or freezing rain, they should limit the flow of traffic at highway intersections to stop cars from getting onto the highway, while those already on the highway should be diverted or an emergency lane opened for them as soon as possible.”
“The [government] response is almost total paralysis when it comes to large-scale and serious disasters like this, both also previous responses to the pandemic, or to flooding,” he said.
Meanwhile, food prices were rising ahead of the New Year celebrations, residents of Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Hebei told RFA in recent interviews.
A resident of Beijing's Fangshan who gave only the surname Tang said money is tight for a lot of people, who can't afford too much festive cheer this year due to unpaid wages and other economic woes.
“Our landlord was saying that the Beijing police haven't had last month’s salary yet,” she said. “There’s no festive atmosphere this year – it’s very depressing, and nobody is out buying stuff in the supermarkets.”
“I went to the supermarket the day before yesterday and bought seven catties of pork at eight or nine yuan a catty (0.6 kilograms), but I didn’t see anyone else buying it,” Tang said, adding that more expensive cuts of meat cost 15 yuan (US$2.11) a catty.
A resident of Wuhan surnamed Ge said things were similar where he lives.
“There are fewer people out shopping now, unlike before, when they would be laying a lot of New Year supplies,” he said. “Pork prices used to be 12-13 yuan/catty, but now they’ve risen to 15-16 yuan/catty.”
“I came back [from working elsewhere] 20 days early this year, and I didn’t make any money, so it’s impossible to have a good New Year. It’s good that I’m able to survive,” Ge said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie .