Vlog: Under the shadow of coronavirus, how are Chinese people traveling home for Spring Festival?
By Li Jingjing
Asia;China
06:26

During Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, Chinese people will spare no effort traveling back home to see their family, no matter where they are in the world. For many, it might be the only time each year they see their loved ones.

But at the big day this year, people will feel very different as the mysterious coronavirus is spreading across the country and the wider world. Fears and concerns are mixing with the festive atmosphere at family gatherings.

While the epicenter of the coronavirus, Wuhan in central Hubei Province, is on lockdown, people in other provinces are traveling across the country to reunite with their families.

I'm one of these people on their way home. I took a high speed train from Beijing to the city of Zhengzhou, also in central China. Both cities have confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but they haven't been hit hard yet.

To better protect myself, I've prepared resources for the inevitable exposure to crowded public spaces. But will everybody as be cautious as I am? The horrifying memory of the SARS outbreak in 2003 is still haunting many Chinese. Do people nowadays have a better awareness in coping with the disease?

Here is my vlog of the trip back home, and see how the Chinese are traveling back home for Chinese New Year during the coronavirus outbreak.