Mid-Autumn Festival proves to be a family affair

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-15 10:14

Millions of Chinese have used this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, which fell on Sept 14, as an opportunity to visit family and loved ones.

This year, the government made the festival a three-day national holiday for the first time.

Railways and buses from Chengdu, Sichuan province, carried 180,000 people to quake-battered cities throughout the province from Saturday, the transport authority said.

"The holiday gave us a break from work so I could go back home to see my parents in Shifang city after it was hit by the earthquake in May," a man surnamed Li said, while waiting in a crowded bus terminal in Chengdu.

Radio broadcasts at the terminal reported travel was made difficult by damage from the earthquake and ongoing road repairs.

Li said the passengers shared the belief that the festival's tradition of visiting family made the trip more meaningful. Those with painful memories from the disaster especially cherished the opportunity.

Many of the homebound passengers were carrying armfuls of mooncakes.

People from other parts of the country generally preferred to celebrate the festival at home or by taking short trips to nearby tourist destinations, travel agencies said.

Leading Chinese travel services such as China Travel Service and CCT Travel reported there were few bookings during the holiday.

A staffer at the CCT Travel's office in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region said ticket sales were sluggish over the weekend compared to the weeklong National Day holiday in October.

China Travel Service's Chongqing office's manager Liao Wei said the company had planned in vain to open new routes featuring Mid-Autumn activities.

"We thought of something such as a full moon observation tour of scenic spots, but the market demand for such concepts was insufficient," he said.