On Saturday China marked the first day of 'chun yun', the 40-day period of Luna New Year Travel known as the world's largest annual migration raising fear of a huge influx of tourists and a further spread of Covid-19 infections.
This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from Jan. 21, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions.
Investors are hoping that the reopening will eventually reinvigorate a $17-trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in nearly half a century.
China's Ministry of Transport said on Friday that it expects more than 2 billion passengers to take trips over the next 40 days, an increase of 99.5% year-on-year and reaching 70.3% of 2019 trip numbers, reports Reuters.
However, with the sudden easing of zero-Covid policy and abrupt changes have exposed many of China's 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering a wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals. And with the great migration, citizens fear that the Covid-19 situation might be aggravated.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, acknowledged that risk in a Friday note but went on to say that "in the large cities that make up much of China's economy, it seems the worst has passed". the Reuters report further adds.
