Unusually heavy snowfall has caused chaos on roads, railways and air traffic in the middle of the peak travel season before the Spring Festival in China. Some travelers were stuck for hours.
Stranded travelers at train stations and airports, chaos on the highways: In central China, unusually heavy snowfalls and frost during the peak travel season before the Spring Festival prevented many people from traveling home. According to official information, the provinces of Henan, Hubei and Hunan were hit particularly hard.
State television showed numerous road workers clearing snow-covered highways. A number of toll booths were closed by the authorities, which meant that the respective motorway sections were closed. According to state television, some travelers were stuck on the highway for up to ten hours because traffic came to a complete standstill.
The winter weather also affected rail and air traffic. At the train station in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, hundreds of train connections were canceled due to ice and snow. The city’s airport also temporarily closed its runways due to the weather.
A person dies due to a collapsed roof
The weather agency had warned of heavy snowfall and severe winter weather ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls on February 10 this year. In Hunan province, one person died on Monday when the roof of a market in the city of Yiyang collapsed under snow. Several people were injured. Meteorologists are expecting further snowfall in the coming days.
The Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, is one of the most important holidays in China. Because the entire country is on vacation at this time, millions of people travel to see their families every year. The Ministry of Transport expected around nine billion travel movements around the Spring Festival this year.
Each traveler is usually recorded individually by the statisticians. So for a family of four going on vacation, four trips would be calculated. The high number comes about because many of China’s 1.4 billion people need several stages to get to their destination or are visiting several family members in different places.