As of: 01/21/2023 6:18 p.m
Millions of Chinese are celebrating the traditional New Year festival with their families for the first time in three years. Even if the corona measures have been lifted, the celebrations are overshadowed by the pandemic.
Chinese around the world welcomed the new year according to the traditional lunar calendar. The Year of the Rabbit follows the Year of the Tiger. In Chinese mythology, the fourth of the twelve signs of the zodiac stands for harmony and longevity, among other things.
It is the first New Year’s celebration since the strict corona measures were lifted. Millions of families can get together in person this weekend for the first time in three years. The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the biggest festival of the year in China. Traditionally, wherever people live, they go home to their families. “The Spring Festival is only once a year, all family members come together in their homeland,” 25-year-old Cheng Tianyin tells dem ARD Studio Beijing. “Most of them work elsewhere, there aren’t that many job opportunities in the countryside.”
Most Chinese celebrate the beginning of the New Year with lavish dinners while watching the New Year Gala on state television.
Huge wave of travel across the country
The authorities expect almost two billion trips during the 40-day season, which corresponds to around 70 percent of the travel volume compared to the time before the pandemic.
Many have not seen their relatives for a long time. The last time Cheng Tianyin was there was three years ago for the Spring Festival in his home village in the very south of Hebei. “I spent the last two spring festivals with my colleagues so I wasn’t so lonely,” he says. “I called my family on video, but I couldn’t go home, it was a bit sad.”
Cheng Tianyin works seven days a week for a delivery service in Beijing. The Corona wave after the sudden opening in December also hit him and his colleagues. “I was very surprised that China suddenly eased up. In Beijing, the infections skyrocketed. Five of my colleagues suddenly had a fever, felt very bad, and couldn’t work.”
Three years of travel bans, mass testing and lockdowns
Cheng Tianyin is traveling on train number K21 from Beijing in the direction of Nanning in the Guangxi region in southern China on the border with Vietnam. It’s a slow train with sleeper compartments. On board are people who cannot or do not want to afford an expensive ticket for the fast trains or a flight. It is the Chinese who often work in the low-wage sector in the capital and are now going home.
This 48-year-old woman works as a kitchen helper in Beijing and travels to her family in central China’s Henan region. She remembers the beginning of the corona pandemic, when her home country was also in a tough lockdown for weeks. In between there are almost three years of a strict zero-Covid policy with travel bans, mass tests, largely closed borders and only a few infections.
Since the sudden opening in December and the subsequent massive corona wave that swept the country, you can move freely in China again. The kitchen helper has not been infected so far, she says. But Corona is no longer an issue, not even with her family in the country, according to the woman.
Corona peak exceeded in metropolises
Large cities like Beijing or Shanghai have largely returned to normal after the major Covid 19 outbreak in December. Many hospitals in different parts of the country are after ARD-Research no longer so heavily burdened, fever clinics partly closed again. Medications and rapid tests are now more readily available.
While the corona situation in the large metropolises has already largely returned to normal, the endurance test in the hinterland provinces is still to come. In comparison, the healthcare system there is only rudimentarily developed, and hospitals with modern equipment are often several hours’ drive away. At the same time, rural areas are predominantly populated by older population groups who have so far only had inadequate vaccination protection in China: According to Chinese state media, a quarter of those over 60 are still not boosted.
Government: Around 80 percent were infected
The London-based research institute Airfinity expects that the current corona wave could peak in the coming week with up to 36,000 deaths per day. Such forecasts are in stark contrast to the official information from the Chinese state media, which deliberately downplays the dramatic situation.
Leading epidemiologist Wu Zunyou says that the many trips during the current Chinese New Year could lead to new outbreaks in some places. But a mass occurrence of new infections is unlikely.
Overall, China considers the risk of a new major wave of infections in the next two to three months to be low. The government in Beijing justifies the forecast by around 80 percent of the population.
Authorities try to calm down
An official with the National Health Commission claimed this week that the number of critically ill patients in hospitals is now well below the Jan. 5 peak. The authorities have also launched a censorship campaign to combat “dark emotions” and “rumors” about the Corona situation on social media. No negative headlines should spoil the festive mood of the Chinese when they welcome the Year of the Rabbit.
International experts remain skeptical, after all, the official information can hardly be checked. This is also due to the increasing lack of transparency in government agencies.