Sawt Falasteen - Hundreds of millions in Asia celebrate Year of the Snake

The Chinese enjoy eight consecutive public holidays for the 2025 Spring Festival, an opportunity to share meals, attend traditional performances, and set off firecrackers and fireworks.

Train stations and airports across the country have been jam-packed for weeks as millions returned home to spend the holidays with their loved ones in an annual migration that is expected to be a record.

And high streets, shopping malls, offices and homes are bedecked in festive red banners -- believed to ward off evil -- across many parts of East and Southeast Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

"When a new year comes around, I think most people hope to get rich, for work to go smoothly, and for family happiness," Yang Longhua, a catering company manager, told AFP by a frozen lake where people went to ice skate in Beijing this week.

"In previous years, we were locked down because of the pandemic, so I want to take advantage of this long holiday to experience China, a better, more beautiful China," said the 26-year-old from Zhoukou, Henan province.

During the traditional 40-day period that runs before, during and after the Lunar New Year holidays, about nine billion interprovincial passenger trips on all forms of transport are expected to be made, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Train and air travel are expected to "hit record highs" during this year's migration, Xinhua said, with the transport ministry saying it expects 510 million train trips and 90 million air trips during the period.

In Shanghai, Ming Dong said she hoped for "good health and good work" as she visited a lantern festival at the popular Yu Garden to mark the arrival of the Year of the Snake -- which symbolises wisdom and vitality in Chinese culture.

"This place has a very Chinese New Year atmosphere, so I came here to take a stroll, and it has a really Chinese feel to it," the 30-year-old told AFP.

- Snow slows travel -

In South Korea, heavy snowfall caused disruption to train, plane and bus schedules nationwide, as people went to visit their families in the countryside this week.

Passengers were seen at Seoul's main train station carrying gifts wrapped in colourful cloth and luggage as they prepared to leave the capital.

Images released by local media showed vehicles covered in snow stuck on South Korea's major highways as heavy winds and snowfall persisted.

Traffic authorities warned it could take more than seven hours on Tuesday to drive from Seoul to the country's port city of Busan, a journey that typically takes around four hours.

Many others opted to spend the break abroad. The operator of Incheon International Airport announced that more than 2.1 million passengers -- averaging 214,000 per day -- were expected to use the airport to travel overseas from January 24 to February 2.

"This is projected to be the highest average daily passenger count during the Lunar New Year holiday since the airport opened (in 2001)," the operator said in a statement.

The festivities even extended to space, with Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze sending New Year's Eve greetings from the Tiangong space station on Tuesday.

In a video released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the trio could be seen dressed in blue jumpsuits with traditional red cloud patterns, holding two pieces of paper-cutting featuring the Chinese character "fu", for good luck.

"In the new year, may all your dreams come true," Wang said, forming a heart shape above her head.

burs-je/dhc

V.Said--SF-PST