© 2025 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

China's Lunar New Year falls amid a COVID surge and hard financial times

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

This weekend marks the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. And in China, that means it's time for hundreds of millions of people who work in cities to travel to their home villages to see family. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, people can travel without mandatory COVID tests and lockdowns. People are also traveling amid an enormous surge in COVID cases. Here's NPR's Emily Feng.

EMILY FENG, BYLINE: The Transport Ministry in China estimates people will make some 2.1 billion trips this month for the holidays, mostly departing from big cities and fanning out into the countryside.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Five, two, seven...

FENG: But Yue Guirong is heading the opposite way. She left her village and has just arrived at this Beijing train station, weighed down by packages. What's inside? - we ask her.

YUE GUIRONG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: "Seafood and our specialty, sea duck eggs," she says, packages of hometown snacks for her son. She wanted to bring him a taste of home. And she cheerfully took the 24-hour slow train to Beijing from her home in southern China.

YUE: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: "The rules were really relaxed from departure to arrival," she says. "Travel went very smoothly."

At the same Beijing train station, 22-year-old Chen Junjie is getting ready to leave for the tropical south. He's had a rough three years. Most of his degree program in Beijing was spent locked down on campus there.

CHEN JUNJIE: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: He says, "I think in the last four years, I really only had a year and a half of class. The rest was just online." Some weeks, he couldn't even leave his dorm. So he's understandably excited to reunite with loved ones. They're planning a big party.

CHEN: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: "Large gatherings were not allowed during the past three years," he says. "So this year, my entire extended family can finally get together. Even my grandparents are coming," he says. Looming over all this frenzied holiday travel is the prospect of more COVID transmissions, however, because China's seen nearly 1 billion people infected by the virus. That's according to a new Peking University study. China's public health authorities have warned smaller localities to stock up on medical supplies and to vaccinate the elderly. But there are no rules stopping someone from traveling now, even if they're sick.

WANG FENG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: Taxi driver Wang Feng says he's trying to put off going home to rural northwestern China. He's not worried about COVID. He made it through the first peak, and everyone he knows has already gotten it.

WANG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: "If you do test positive, just stay at home," he says. "No one cares anymore about COVID." What's really on his mind is money.

WANG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: "After three years of the pandemic, I'm nearly broke," he says. Normally, he'd come home laden with gifts of alcohol and cigarettes for the men and new clothing from Beijing for the women. But China's economy has been tanking. It posted its lowest economic growth figures in four decades for last year because COVID controls and now high infections have hurt the working class, like Mr. Wang. So no gifts.

WANG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: Mr. Wang says he feels a lot of pressure. He's the sole breadwinner in the family, and he still has a mortgage to pay off. And his income declined, he says, as people spent less on taxis.

WANG: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: It's a Chinese tradition to wear new clothes on the first day of the Lunar New Year this weekend. But Mr. Wang says he's showing up in the clothes he's wearing right now. He hasn't had the money to buy new clothes for three years. Emily Feng, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Emily Feng is NPR's Beijing correspondent.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.