During the New Year holiday, China saw a huge tourism boom. (Representative picture)
A man in China has come up with an innovative way to ensure his daughter gets home in time for the Chinese New Year. According to the South China Morning Post, the man surnamed Wang took the seven-year-old girl back to his hometown in the countryside on a two-seater plane to avoid severe traffic jams. Mr. Wang told the media that it took him 50 minutes to fly to his parents’ home, which was two hours faster than driving. The man lives in eastern China’s Anhui province and trains pilots.
“The small aircraft we use is worth 1.1 million yuan ($155,000) and can fly 1,200 kilometers on a full tank of fuel,” he said.
Mr Wang added that he applied for the route hours in advance and checked permission to park the plane at a flying camp near his parents’ home.
China sees a huge influx of tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, as tourists return to their hometowns and families prepare for traditional reunion dinner gatherings.
The country has been increasing travel capacity to help traffic flow after severe weather threatened to send millions home for the holidays. The vast railway network added about 1,873 passenger trains a day, a record, according to the state-run Global Times.
The South China Morning Post stated that the tourism peak is expected to last for 40 days, from January 26 to March 5. The outlet cited China’s Ministry of Transport as saying a record 9 billion trips were expected during the period.
Wang’s decision to fly to avoid road traffic caused a stir on Chinese social media platforms.
“I thought the childhood dream of luxury was someone else’s reality,” one user wrote on TikTok. Another netizen said: “This is a great way to avoid traffic jams during the Chinese New Year.”
Last Wednesday, 13.1 million passengers traveled on China’s state railways during the world’s busiest travel migration period.
