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| From the South China Morning Post |
It's the Mid-Autumn Festival here, a holiday that ranks just behind Chinese New Year in importance. The festival originated as a celebration of the harvest and a time for families to gather and spend time together - much like the American Thanksgiving.
In China, many families now live far apart - with the older generation living in the countryside in more remote areas of the country and the younger generation living in factory towns in the south (often leaving their children in the countryside to be raised by grandparents). During the Mid-Autumn Festival there is usually a mass reverse migration as factories shut down for the week.
This year, the Chinese economy has slowed. Many people are earning less and there was speculation that many would-be travelers would stay home this year. The Chinese government, in an effort to boost travel and tourism lifted highway tolls (a significant sum for many) and relaxed restrictions on cars (usually on a schedule of being only able to drive a couple times a week).
It worked. Here's a photo from Reuters of the Beijing-Shanghai "Expressway":
An estimated 85 million took to the roads, making some so jammed that people could get out and take walks before the traffic would get moving again. One woman reported moving just 200 meters in one hour! Can you imagine? Makes driving across Western Kansas sound like a dream!
Hong Kong gets much busier during the Festival, with approximately one million people crossing the border - fortunately not with their cars! However, it makes an already crowded place feel very claustrophobic in some places. We had planned to flee to Bali with a week of R&R at the villa we so enjoyed a couple of years ago, but at the last minute that planned was foiled as I had an unexpected four day visit at:
The Matilda International Hospital in Hong Kong. Nice view, but NOT at all what we'd had in mind! More on HK health care next time (and, so no one worries, I am fine now!).
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