As the impact of the global economic crisis begins to hit home, some Chinese white-collar workers see the upcoming Spring Festival celebrations and the lackof steady work as an opportunity to escape from the stress with fun on the road while others are racking their brains to limit daily expenses.
Menaced by the crisis, many Chinese white-collars have discarded their travel plans during the Lunar New Year holiday to save money. However, Guan Yiwen and her friends thought otherwise.
"Influenced by the crisis, we are not as busy as before. Many colleagues plan to ask for a two-week holiday and travel to some far-off places," said 23-year-old Guan from the Boston Consulting Group Greater China.
Guan said that when she and her colleagues were really busy, there was no way to take a leave -- even if they were supposed toenjoy a holiday. "So now we have a chance and we will take it!"
Guan said she would use some of her time to travel to some nearby places and spend the rest of the seven-day holiday with family.
Sun Jiong, a 35-year-old business worker at the Mizuno China Corporation, said he planned to travel with his parents after the Spring Festival. "Our inland retailing business is still good, andI want to seize the chance to have some fun before business gets worse."
While white-collars at multinational companies were influenced in a different way as many Chinese business workers are cutting back expenses and crouching at home for shelter.
Leo Jin, a native Shanghai resident from PricewaterhouseCoopersShanghai office, said during this Spring Festival he would stay home and avoid further spending.
"Most of my out-of-town colleagues planned to go back home for the holiday too," he said.
While last year's Spring Festival traffic was mixed with the horror of the unprecedented ice storms, experts believe this year's travel rush will be boosted by the financial crisis.
Due to a troubled economy, many companies have cut jobs and dismissed many migrant workers to return home ahead of the Lunar New Year, which falls on January 26, pressuring the holiday traffic earlier than usual.
The Railway Ministry expects 188 million people to travel during the coming travel rush, up 8 percent from last year, with daily traffic expected to hit 4.7 million people. Some 24 million will take on flights in January and February.
Earlier reports warned China might witness more job losses among city workers this year after millions of migrant workers became unemployed in 2008.
Some laid-off white-collar workers in Shanghai even set up a Web site called "bujingqi" (which means "not secure") as a place where troubled workers can talk about their experiences in coping with the crisis and relieve their pressure.
The site writes "the Web site will be closed when the Shanghai Index goes back to 6,000 points." "We say it because we want to give more white-collar workers courage and hopes," Cheng Liang, site co-founder, was quoted by Shanghai Morning Post as saying.
Source: Xinhua
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