Lunar New Year: agony turns to joy for Hong Kong, mainland families spending festival together after 3 years apart
- Hundreds of thousands travel in both directions as border restrictions ease in time for festive reunions
- ‘I want to hold them in my arms,’ says cleaner returning to her family for the first time since pandemic
For the first time in three years, Hong Kong waitress Han Zhuqing, 48, is spending Lunar New Year with her family in mainland China.
She left for Shanwei, in neighbouring Guangdong province, as soon as quarantine-free travel across the border resumed on January 8.
“I feel so excited to be home to celebrate the festival with my family,” she said. “It is time for a reunion.”
Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers and mainland Chinese are welcoming the Year of the Rabbit with their families for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began at the start of 2020.
The number of people crossing the border in both directions has been on the rise through the past week.
The long separation has been agony for many.
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Before the pandemic, Han used to return to her mainland home every two or three months to see her husband, a driver who is now 48, their daughter, 17, and Han’s mother, 85.
Those trips ended with pandemic travel restrictions and compulsory hotel quarantine she could ill afford. She returned only once, in 2021, when her mother could not bear the separation and asked her to visit.
She recalled that spending the past three Lunar New Year holidays alone in her tiny cubicle in Kwun Tong left her overwhelmed with loneliness and helplessness.
This year is different. Han went home with two bags full of confectionery, biscuits, chocolates and other new year goodies, and bought a new smartphone for her daughter.
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Lunar New Year’s Eve on Saturday will start with worshipping ancestors at home in the morning, before she prepares traditional dishes of fish, shrimp and fish balls for dinner with her family and relatives at her home.
She plans to visit relatives and friends before returning to Hong Kong in February after the final day of the festive celebrations.
Listing her hopes for the Year of the Rabbit, she said: “I wish the pandemic will end, the economy will recover and everyone has a job, and I can move into a public rental flat.”
Since January 8, the authorities introduced a 50,000 daily quota for cross-border travellers each way through land checkpoints, with 35,000 set aside for the crossing at Lok Ma Chau Spur Line, 10,000 for Shenzhen Bay and 5,000 for Man Kam To.
With surging demand ahead of Lunar New Year, the daily quota was raised to 65,000 each way between January 18 and 21.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s high-speed rail link resumed operations on January 15 after being closed for three years, with the daily number of tickets raised gradually from 10,000 to 20,000.
Immigration data showed that the number of people who left Hong Kong through the three land checkpoints rose from 26,179 on Monday to 62,174 on Friday.
The number who went to the mainland by the high-speed rail went up from 3,613 on Monday to 9,502 on Friday.
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Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation which works with poor people, including mainland immigrants, said tens of thousands of those using its service had returned to the mainland for the holidays.
Cleaner Zuo Yun, 48, who has been separated from her husband, a 67-year-old retiree, and their 16-year-old son for three years, will be heading to Shenzhen to be with them on Sunday, New Year’s Day,
Before the pandemic she used to commute daily to Hong Kong to work, but after travel restrictions began, she remained in Yuen Long, sharing a rented space with a friend.
She said the long separation was unbearable, and she had to stop herself from crying when she spent Lunar New Year alone the past three years.
With some days off from work, she said she would spend time with her husband and son in Shenzhen before visiting her parents and two younger brothers in Hainan.
“I want to hold them in my arms and have a meal with them,” Zuo said. “I miss them so much.”
Travellers have also been pouring into Hong Kong from the mainland in recent days. The number arriving in the city went up from 8,830 on Monday to 14,892 on Friday.
Hongkonger Tracy Chu Siu-mei, 40, will be reunited with her husband and parents for their first Lunar New Year together in three years.
During the pandemic, the insurance agent and her 10-year-old son stayed in Hong Kong, while her husband, a 50-year-old mainlander, remained in his hometown, Shanghai, where he worked as a photographer.
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They used to visit each other every month before the pandemic. Chu said she had not seen her husband for more than 1½ years until he visited Hong Kong before Christmas last year.
Chu’s parents, who live in Guangzhou, travelled to Hong Kong last Sunday for Lunar New Year.
The family will have a hotpot and barbecue dinner on the eve of the festival, and plan to visit Victoria Peak and the Big Buddha on Lantau Island over the holidays.
“Things have finally returned to normal,” Chu said. “I wish for good health for my family in the new year.”
