Lunar New Year: agony turns to joy for Hong Kong, mainland families spending festival together after 3 years apart
- Hundreds of thousands travel in both directions as border restrictions ease in time for festive reunions
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For the first time in three years, Hong Kong waitress Han Zhuqing, 48, is spending Lunar New Year with her family in mainland China.
She left for Shanwei, in neighbouring Guangdong province, as soon as quarantine-free travel across the border resumed on January 8.
“I feel so excited to be home to celebrate the festival with my family,” she said. “It is time for a reunion.”
Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers and mainland Chinese are welcoming the Year of the Rabbit with their families for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began at the start of 2020.
The number of people crossing the border in both directions has been on the rise through the past week.
The long separation has been agony for many.
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China says Covid outbreak has peaked as Lunar New Year travel rush returns in full swing
Before the pandemic, Han used to return to her mainland home every two or three months to see her husband, a driver who is now 48, their daughter, 17, and Han’s mother, 85.