Heartwarming stories as Spring Festival travel rush kicks off
This year's 40-day chunyun, the annual Spring Festival travel rush, begins on Monday, more than 9 million railway trips are expected to be made during the period.
For Ni Jiaojiao, a 29-year-old woman, Monday was an exciting day as she took the high-speed train heading to her hometown of Shangyu in neighboring Zhejiang Province.
"I know my mom will make my favorite caifan (rice with vegetable) and pork ribs, and is waiting for me full of joy," Ni told Shanghai Daily.
She has lived and worked in Shanghai since she graduated from university.
Reuniting with her mother has been Ni's heartfelt desire for the whole year. She did not go home during the last Spring Festival holiday as COVID-19 pandemic control policies ensured she stayed put.
Ni didn't use her annual holiday the whole of last year, saving it for this Spring Festival.
"I want to spend all my holiday with my mom," she said.
Such touching stories about returning home are being repeated by people at all the city's railway stations, as China's chunyun, the annual Spring Festival travel rush, kicked off on Monday.
About 174,000 people departed Shanghai on Monday, starting their annual trips home, China Railway Shanghai Group said.
More than 9.1 million railway trips are expected to be made from Shanghai during the 40-day travel rush, which is a 66.5 percent increase from last year, the group predicted.
This year's travel rush started amid a new round of COVID-19 outbreaks across the country, with tighter epidemic control and varying destination policies.
As of last Saturday, the highly infectious Omicron variant had been reported in eight regions on China's mainland. Epidemic control policies have become stricter since the first case was detected late last month.
During the travel rush, the railway department will strictly implement epidemic prevention and control regulations for the whole process of traveling by train.
Shanghai railway stations will check passengers' temperature, health and travel codes as well as enforce mask-wearing when they enter and leave the stations.
The trains will reserve isolated seats, stop dining carriages and start delivering food to passengers' seats.
Armed with negative nucleic acid test reports, a man with his 3-year-old girl and wife took a train to Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, departing from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station on Monday.
"We were asked to show the health code and travel-tracking code before entering the station and had our temperature checked," he told Shanghai Daily. "I told my company about my imminent leave a week ago as required."
"My mother suffers from high blood pressure and had a stroke some years ago," he revealed.
"I didn't go visit her last year, so I wanted to go home early to stay with her this year. She will be happy to see her granddaughter."
Passengers wait for their trains at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station.
A Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station staffer helps a woman with a boy to pass the turnstile to enter the station.
Railway service
With a huge amount people expected to take trains before the Spring Festival, Shanghai's railway stations are gearing up to provide good and essential service.
Additional staff members and volunteers have been arranged at the stations to provide help for passengers, such as information about schedules, train numbers and waiting rooms etc.
The stations have also prepared facial masks, hand sanitizers as well disinfectants for emergency situations while some high-tech devices have been deployed for tracking and covering the disinfection tasks.
Passengers can see nanometer disinfection robots at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station.
Two robots can spray for up to four hours for each charge. A 2,000-square-meter waiting room can be fully covered and disinfected once in 30 minutes by the two.
Also, a 24-hour online refund service has been launched for passengers who need to change their travel plans.
People are advised to buy, change and return tickets through the online platform (https://www.12306.cn/index/), which also has an English version.
There are also discounts of up to 80 percent on traditional trains and 45 percent on D-series high-speed trains, according to railway authorities.
Passengers queue to enter the platform.
Mum visits daughter in Shanghai
Meanwhile, the travel rush also unveiled a different story.
Xiao Liqing, a 56-year-old mother from Beijing, arrived in Shanghai on Saturday.
She came to visit her daughter who has lived in Jing'an District after marrying a local man.
"My daughter is usually busy with work, and I don't want her to suffer from the long journey (back home)," Xiao told Shanghai Daily.
"I miss her so I have come to her," she said, "I can help her do some housework and make food for her and her husband."
"I am so happy that my mum has come to visit me, it is like my home has come to me," the daughter, 28, said.
