Monday, February 04, 2008

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The not-so-快樂的新年 on the other side of the Strait

 

There's been a lot of stuff out today about the mess being caused by the hordes of Chinese people trying to get home for the lunar new year.

The China Digital Times has a snippet from a BBC article, saying

Chinese weather experts have admitted that they were not properly prepared for the snow storms that have left hundreds of thousands stranded. The cold weather seen in recent weeks has been the worst to hit central and southern provinces in decades.

Officials have blamed freak conditions, but on Monday the head of the China’s meteorological office said “we did not make enough preparation”. About 100m people have been affected, with damage set at 54bn yuan (£3.8bn)….

There's also a video from the GuangDong trainstation:

The Foreign Policy blog shows another, more grim depiction of the "snafu" in this video:

I feel horrible for these people, trying to get home for what, I imagine, may be the only time during the year they get more than a day off at a time. It must have been hell.