Tuesday January 06, 2009

Chinese New Year 2009 : China travel season starts early - another 2 billion trips

channelnewsasia.com :

China's massive Lunar New Year travel rush has begun early this year [2009] with hordes of migrant workers streaming out of cities where jobs have dried up due to a slowing economy. Lunar New Year for 2009 falls on January 26, but the annual exodus is already under way in major cities, with many of China's millions of migrant labourers heading home to an uncertain future. State media said previously that a record 2.3 billion passenger trips were expected to be taken during the Lunar New Year period, the country's most important holiday.

The impact of the global economic crisis was expected to boost this year's travel rush. The millions of workers who have migrated from poor and rural regions to the country's cities and coastal manufacturing regions have played a vital role in China's recent economic expansion. But slowing overseas demand for Chinese products has already shuttered many factories and was expected to throw millions out of work. The yearly exodus is marked by chaotic scenes as masses of Chinese desperate to return home overwhelm the nation's transport grid. Last year, the chaos was compounded dramatically by freak winter ice storms that spread misery across a huge swathe of the country.

- With over 100,000 factories in China reportedly shut down into the closing months of 2008, quite a few of these workers would probably not be going back to the cities. The Chinese government is trying to put in place some programmes in the rural areas and is going to spend a sizeable chunk of its massive reserves to try to prop up the economy. How effective that will be remains to be seen.

See also :

1. Chinese New Year : 2 billion trips in China
2. Another two billion trips
3. China - yet another 2 billion trips
4. China : 2 billion holiday trips during Chinese New Year threatened by snowstorms

(2009-01-06 22:41:00 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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