18m SZers to stay put for Spring Festival: survey

A statue of an ox is seen at One Avenue in Futian District. Sun Yuchen

The upcoming Spring Festival will see more than 18 million residents staying in Shenzhen, twice as many as last year’s festival, according to the WeChat account of Shenzhen Release yesterday, which is operated by the city government.

Many people have abandoned their travel plans in response to a national call for people to celebrate the holiday at the place where they live or work.

A survey conducted among Shenzhen residents by Shenzhen Economic Daily, DT News app and Wanren Market Research presented a portrait of those who have decided not to return to their hometowns for Spring Festival celebrations.

Who are those Shenzheners who will stay put for the holiday? The survey results show that the proportion of those who have chosen to stay in Shenzhen is relatively high in three groups of respondents: young people; employees of the government, public institutions and educational institutions; and those who have only seven days of holiday.

Why did they decide to stay put? About 60 percent of the participants chose the following reason in the questionnaires: “to answer the government’s call and to contribute to pandemic prevention and control.”

What do they plan for this unusual holiday? The findings indicate more than 50 percent of the respondents will visit parks. Also, nearly 50 percent of the participants will mostly stay at home due to the pandemic or personal reasons. In terms of age, 60 percent of the participants born in the 1990s stated they would “stay at home” during the holiday and only 20 percent said they would go sightseeing and hiking.

To make this unusual Spring Festival as happy and safe as usual, Shenzhen has doubled and even tripled parts of the food reserve.

The overall price of vegetables, rice, meat, and other living materials in the city was stable Jan. 27, while the price of pork rose slightly, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. The authority said it would keep monitoring prices and an emergency plan will be launched if any abnormal situation occurs.

Recently, a number of confirmed cases and clusters of outbreaks emerged in some areas of China. As a result, the upcoming travel rush during the Spring Festival will further burden the prevention and control of the pandemic.

Medical experts have announced various risk warnings. Zhang Boli, a national honorary title winner and scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the cold season was very suitable for the survival of the virus, and he hoped that people would not gather during the Spring Festival or travel except in special circumstances.

Seven Central Government departments will launch a series of operations to guarantee migrant workers’ welfare and enterprises’ production.