Highway closures hamper return to work for millions across China

Bad weather forced the partial closure of more than half of China’s expressways yesterday, hampering millions of travelers on their way back to work after New Year family reunions. Sections of 69 highways in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Hubei and Anhui provinces were shut after snow and ice made driving conditions hazardous. All the highways in four major cities in the northern province of Hebei were closed. Some expressways, including the Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway and the Shanxi section of the Beijing-Kunming Expressway, are expected to continue to be affected today. The number of road travelers in China was expected to hit 89.1 million yesterday, the sixth day of the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, as many return to work after their family gatherings. The figure is up 5.4 percent from the corresponding period last year, according to a road network monitoring center under the Ministry of Transport. The bad weather led to a number of road accidents but no reports of fatalities. The National Meteorological Center issued a yellow blizzard alert, the second lowest in a four-tier system, at 10am yesterday, warning that snowstorms would continue to sweep areas in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei provinces from 2pm yesterday to 2pm today. Eastern areas of Henan, southern areas of Shandong, northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu were expected to be the worst hit, with snow up to 16 centimeters deep, the center said. Blizzard conditions could linger until tomorrow in some eastern and central regions. The strong cold front also disrupted rail and air traffic. High-speed trains running through snowstorm-hit regions, including those from Beijing to Shanghai and Guangzhou, have been restricted to a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour for safety reasons. Some flights at Taiyuan Airport in Shanxi Province were forced to land at other airports because of continuous snow, China News Service reported. As the Spring Festival, the most important holiday in China, reaches its end, tens of millions of people are returning to work from their hometowns. This year’s 40-day travel rush is set to last until February 24. Each year, Chinese people make billions of trips for family reunions during the nation’s most important holiday, and the numbers have been increasing every year. It is expected that the number of passengers will reach 3.6 billion during this year’s rush, up from last year’s 3.42 billion. During the first 20 days as of Tuesday, about 121.2 million trips were made by train, up 13.6 percent from the same period last year, Xinhua news agency said. About 89.11 million passengers used the railways yesterday, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Transport said. Since January 21, 1.678 billion passengers have been recorded nationwide, an increase of 6.2 percent, the ministry said. Water transport also reported a 17.9 percent increase yesterday with 1.78 million passengers.