Coronavirus: China’s National Day-trippers shun face masks, social-distancing rules

Annual holiday sees the usual traffic jams and railway station crushes as people let off steam after troubling year

Travel agency says it expects 600 million trips to be made across China over the course of the holiday

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Not everyone who visited the temple of Heaven in Beijing on Thursday observed the China CDC’s advice on wearing face masks. Photo: AP

Published: 7:00pm, 1 Oct 2020Updated: 12:05pm, 5 Oct 2020

China’s week-long National Day holiday got under way on Thursday, as millions of people across the country put the coronavirus pandemic to the back of their minds and headed for their favourite tourist spots.

With overseas travel still off the menu for most, domestic attractions proved the biggest draws. In Beijing, hundreds of people arrived early in the morning at the Temple of Heaven, though most ignored the advice of the Chinese Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, which said people should wear face masks and observe social-distancing rules.

China’s railway authority said it expected to handle 14.8 million passengers on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

A similar disregard for the CDC’s recommendations was seen in a report by state broadcaster CCTV that showed large crowds of people milling around without masks at a railway station in Nanchang, east China’s Jiangxi province.

The railway authority said it expected to handle 14.8 million passengers on Thursday, the network’s busiest day since the start of the global health crisis.

The nation’s roads were also busy, with people sharing videos on social media of huge traffic jams. With their cars motionless, the footage showed day trippers passing the time practising their tai chi or even fishing from bridges.

The Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan was set to welcome 25,000 visitors on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua