China offering cash gifts and free film tickets to encourage people not to travel for new year celebrations

People across China and Asia are preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year

Credit: Yang Jianzheng/VCG via Getty Images

Chinese authorities are peddling perks – from cash gifts to free movie tickets – to encourage the public to stay put rather than travel during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday over coronavirus worries. 

Cities across China are gifting snack baskets and giving out vouchers redeemable for free bus rides, film tickets and admission to tourist sites. 

In Hangzhou, migrant workers who don’t travel home to see family for the holiday have been promised a cash incentive of 1,000 yuan (£115). 

State-owned telecoms companies have been ordered by Chinese authorities to give customers free mobile data – up to 20 GB for Beijing residents. 

The central government has even encouraged online streaming platforms to provide free movies and shows for people to watch over the holidays. And the country’s airline regulator is allowing free cancellation and re-booking for those who have already reserved flights. 

China has been on high alert given a resurgence of coronavirus, coming just weeks before the holiday, when hundreds of millions travel to celebrate with friends and family – the world’s biggest annual mass migration.

Millions of people on the move last year exacerbated the spread of coronavirus, which had by then emerged in the central city of Wuhan. 

The Year of the Ox begins on Feb 12

Credit: Ding Genhou/VCG via Getty Images

This year, the transport ministry has estimated that 1.15 billion trips will be made over the holiday, 20 per cent less than the flurry of travel last year. 

Authorities are stopping short of banning travel outright – a move that could be embarrassing for Beijing as senior leaders have crowed about China’s Covid-19 containment success. 

Such a decision would also likely be met with outcry in the country of 1.4 billion people, many of whom are migrant workers only able to return home once a year over the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins in two weeks.

Many remain wary of infection risks, though some still hope to travel home and so far seem unimpressed by the incentives on offer. 

“What we really lack is sufficient food supply if we stay for Chinese New Year,” one person posted online. “What do we need the free mobile data for? To watch state news broadcasts?

China has found more than 2,500 infections over the last five weeks, including a handful of cases linked to the new UK variant. Authorities are taking no chances, mass quarantining more than 20 million people and testing them multiple times including taking samples via anal swabs. 

The Chinese government is also ramping up its national coronavirus immunisation campaign ahead of the holiday period, vowing to vaccinate 50 million people before the holiday period. 

Additional reporting by Yiyin Zhong