BEIJING – Efforts to dissuade Chinese from traveling for Lunar New Year appeared to be working as Beijing’s main train station was largely quiet and estimates of passenger totals were smaller than in past years.
Thursday started the roughly two-week travel rush ahead of the holiday that falls this year on Feb. 12, a time when trains and other transportation are usually packed with migrant workers taking what may be their only chance each year to travel home and see family.
At the Beijing station, only about five of 15 security gates were open and the usual lines at ticket windows and passengers camped on the central plaza were nowhere to be seen.