9 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The start of what is known as the Spring Festival in China, a 40-day period that coincides with the turn of the year, has started with unprecedented levels of displacement since 2020 and the authorities foresee that, in all this time, the number shoot up to 2,000 million.
These trips coincide with the end of the ‘COVID zero’ policy, under which the Government imposed strong restrictions on mobility. As of this Sunday, it is no longer necessary for travelers entering the Asian giant to keep a quarantine.
The Ministry of Transport estimates that 34.7 million trips took place on Saturday alone, 39 percent more than on a similar day in 2022 and the highest daily data since 2020, although it still represents 51 percent of what the first day of travel of 2019.
Throughout the festival, the Government expects that there will be 2.100 million displacements, almost double that of last year, according to the Bloomberg agency. Even so, this statistic will also remain below that of 2019, since it will represent 70 percent of the value then.
This increase in mobility is also noticeable in traffic, to the point that in 15 large cities traffic jams grew by 116 percent compared to January 2021 levels, as Baidu data also collected by Bloomberg shows.
However, there is still data that has not been recovered, such as that of metro users, which last week continued to be 24 percent lower than in the same period of 2021.
