How Bad is Travel in China Right Now?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.31.08 | 9:50 AM ET
It’s hard to imagine it getting worse. On Tuesday, we noted the bullhorn-wielding prime minister’s apology to travelers. Now, as a result of the worst winter storms in half a century, Chinese officials are asking migrant workers to cancel their trips home for Lunar New Year celebrations—no small request.
“The trip is often the only bright spot for workers who toil all year long in factories far from home,” the AP reports. “For an estimated 178 million people—the size of the combined population of Italy, France and Britain—the annual trek is sometimes the only opportunity to see family that they leave behind.”
Chinese officials have plenty of other concerns, too, including the storms’ threat to the fruit and vegetables grown in central China and, if the storms move northward, to wheat production.
Related on World Hum:
* Chinese PM to Train Passengers Through Bullhorn: ‘I Apologize’
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
John M. Edwards 01.31.08 | 12:45 PM ET
Hi Jim:
I haven’t been to China yet, but I imagine it would be hard anyway to travel around a country with a billion people. I still can’t believe that is possible. How did China end up with a billion people? I used to think their population census figures were made up, flat out fudged, to cover up the fact that they are the world’s number-one rice producer, and don’t want tourists (or, even worse, “journalists”) snooping around their Rice Bowl, comparing working conditions in their field to those of the capitalist infidels. But I suspect picking rice in China is about ten times harder than picking oranges in California, so who knows?
Jen 01.31.08 | 1:52 PM ET
It’s horrible that they are moving from it being almost impossible to get home to outright asking people not to. And I’m sure if they are asking now (a week before the new year) it will become an order soon.
I can’t imagine being ordered not to see my Mum at Christmas…or being allowed to, but knowing there was no hope.
AppetiteforChina 02.01.08 | 6:17 AM ET
In response to John’s comment, China has a billion people because it covers an area almost as big as the continent of Europe.
That and the baby boom that occurred around the same time as the US’s, except China had an even higher rate of births.