On October 1st, 2020, China celebrated Golden Week. Golden Week is usually the week celebrating the founding of China. However, this year, the day after the end of Golden Week was the Mid-Autumn Festival. China’s government extended the holiday to eight days, making it the longest holiday of the year.
In addition, during Golden Week, 637 million people traveled across the country to the various sights and festivities held across the country. Many picturesque images were taken, showing the nation that claims to have less than 300 Coronavirus cases among its 1.4 billion citizens. Indeed, when Hangzhou East Railway Station put high speed train tickets for sale, they sold out almost instantly, making for a promising start to the Golden Week.
[post_page_title]Caught on camera[/post_page_title]
Looking at pictures coming out of China the last week, it seems like nothing but crowds and festivals. Many of China’s iconic travel destinations have reopened, and many people are eager to visit them after an extended lockdown period. Locations such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Bund in Shanghai, and The Great Wall, also located just outside of Beijing.
In addition, many traveled to an amusement park in Wuhan. Wuhan was recently popularized by being the origin site of the Coronavirus. However, city officials claim that there have been no new cases of Coronavirus in Wuhan since May, and that the park has been reopened with visitor caps and social distancing on all of the rides.
[post_page_title]Interesting implications[/post_page_title]
The implications of Golden Week for the traveling community are either extremely good or extremely bad. On one hand, if China has actually managed to control the spread of Coronavirus among its massive population — to the point that eight days of high traffic travel is possible — it means that very soon the traveling community can get back to business once more.
However, if the Chinese government is lying or falsifying data of their Coronavirus numbers, this does not bode well for its citizens or other countries allowing access to travelers from China. If a second wave should appear after such a large amount of interaction, it would certainly mean that the country would have to close down again. Either way, perhaps it is best to take this with a grain of salt at the moment, and to just enjoy the pictures.
