Many people went on retaliatory tours during the Labor Day holiday, which began on April 29. As travel has been virtually banned over the past three years due to the Zero Corona policy, many people have traveled abroad or to various parts of the country, and the busiest places in China for the Labor Day holiday were airports and train stations. On the first day of the holiday, the number of railway users reached a record high of nearly 20 million, and during the eight days before and after the holiday, major tourist attractions in China were literally crowded, but various incidents occurred. According to a video posted on Chinese social media, a man punched another person several times in a large cable car full of tourists, assaulted a guide who stopped him, causing the cable car to shake greatly, and other tourists screamed. Some of the tourists’ arguments eventually turned into a group struggle. On the 29th of last month, the first day, two passengers swore and shook their fists on a plane departing from Lijiang, Yunnan Province, to Hefei, Anhui Province, because a passenger put his foot on the backrest and shook the seat. The fight between the two passengers caused the plane to shake for a while and became a problem. At a casino in Macau on the 1st, two Chinese tourists began a fight while exchanging swear words over betting issues, and even acquaintances joined and expanded into a group battle. As Chinese people went out with stress that they had not been able to go out since the COVID-19 pandemic, some people began to think that such various problems occurred. China has also traveled abroad this year, especially during the Labor Day holiday, with 230 million visitors to the country’s national tourist destinations by the end of the holiday, up 120 percent from the same period last year and 103 percent before COVID-19, according to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In addition, mining revenue during the same period was 113.23 billion yuan, up 138 percent from last year, but about 77 percent compared to before COVID-19.However, as movement restrictions are lifted in China and movement restrictions disappear, voices of concern are rising again within China.
Currently, various social media services in China are increasing in number of posts that upload videos of patients posted more than before at fever clinics where only fever patients are collected and treated. The number of patients who visited “fever clinics” across the country in China averaged 100,000 per day in February, compared to 230,000 on April 20. On WeChat, China’s leading messenger, the number of people searching for Eonyang, which means “reinfection,” surged 6,800 percent. As concerns about reinfection increase, stocking up on quarantine products such as medicines, disinfectants, and alcohol masks is increasing rapidly. In the case of masks and hand sanitizers, some stores are responding by limiting sales or raising prices due to a lack of masks, and in the case of food, many people are stocking up The reason is that travelers who travel abroad are buying drugs that can be used in the event of COVID-19, including cold medicine, and Chinese living abroad are buying and sending COVID-related products for families in China. However, in China, contrary to the concerns of these people, the submission of PCR negative results before entering the country has been replaced by a rapid antigen test.
Sophia Kim
US ASIA JOURNAL
