China Welcomes a Chilly Year of the Dragon

Ben ShpigelWriting about the Chinese New Year

The Lunar New Year — the most important holiday in many Asian countries — begins on Saturday, when in roars the year of the dragon.

Here is how the holiday is going in China →

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The season is a typically heavy travel period, with millions of people trekking to their hometowns ahead of the holiday. For many years, it produced the world’s largest annual migration.

During the coronavirus pandemic, fear of lockdowns, quarantines and other rules deterred many from traveling. This year was supposed to mark a return to normal.

Andres Martinez Casares/EPA, via Shutterstock

China’s aviation regulator said it had scheduled 2,500 extra international flights ahead of the holiday, and transportation officials said that they expected 480 million rail trips during the 40-day travel surge, a nearly 40 percent increase from last year.

But snow and freezing rain this week disrupted travel, causing hundreds of rail and flight cancellations. The National Meteorological Center issued warnings for snowstorms and blizzards in several provinces and cities in central and eastern China.

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By Saturday, though, the skies had mostly cleared, and festivities for the year of the dragon — a particularly auspicious one in the Chinese zodiac — had begun.

China Daily, via Reuters