4 | Tuesday, January 5, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA Railways set Snowy market service goals for new year National operator looking forward to big year­on­year rise in passenger trips By LUO WANGSHU tain offline services for them. [email protected] Epidemic prevention measures will continue to be carried out, Handling more passengers and including preventing overcrowding cargo and opening new railways are and providing separate seating spa­ among goals set by China’s national ces for passengers who feel unwell. railway operator for this year that Cold­chain services will be checked were unveiled on Monday. thoroughly to minimize virus trans­ A total of 3.11 billion railway trips mission risks. are expected to be made across Chi­ Overseas projects will include fur­ na this year, a year­on­year increase ther improving freight services of 43.7 percent. Last year, the net­ between China and Europe. Multi­ work handled 2.16 billion passenger mode transport networks will also trips. be promoted, especially along a new However, in 2019, before the COV­ trade corridor connecting areas in ID­19 epidemic, 3.57 billion passen­ western China with the Guangxi People buy groceries at an outdoor market amid heavy snow in Dalian, Liaoning province, on Monday. It was the first snow of the year, ger trips were made. Zhuang autonomous region and with authorities issuing an alert for road icing. LYU WENZHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY Some 3.7 billion metric tons of Southeast Asia. An international cargo are expected to be handled by railway connecting Kunming, capi­ the railway network this year, a tal of Yunnan province, and Vien­ year­on­year rise of 3.4 percent. tiane, the capital of Laos, will be put This year, 3,700 kilometers of new into operation by the end of this railway tracks will be put into opera­ year. HK sees spike in people leaving for mainland tion, compared with 4,933 km last China’s railway network, especial­ year. ly its high­speed railways, has devel­ Other goals revealed at the annual oped rapidly in the past decade. The By GU MENGYAN and those who want to stay in Shen­ normally take seven minutes. the maximum number of pupils conference of China Railway Corp in length of the country’s high­speed CHEN ZIMO in Hong Kong zhen must undergo 14 days at a After 14 days of quarantine in returning to campus is capped at Beijing included improving service railway network has nearly doubled hotel followed by seven days at Shenzhen, Xu will also undergo one­sixth of a school’s total. quality, continuing to carry out epi­ in the past five years to 37,900 km, Hong Kong saw a surge of peo­ their residence in Shenzhen. They seven days of quarantine at her Current social distancing rules, demic control and promoting over­ ranking first in the world. ple crossing the boundary to the also need to be tested four times hometown in Hunan province for mostly in force since Dec 10, seas projects. New railway lines put into opera­ Chinese mainland in the hope of for the coronavirus before they are the Chinese New Year and take include a ban on dining at local In the first year of the 14th Five­ tion last year included high­speed clearing quarantine before the cleared to move around freely. online courses for the next semes­ restaurants after 6 pm, a ban on Year Plan period (2021­25), railway railways connecting Beijing and Chinese New Year, as Shenzhen Those coming from the United ter until May. public gatherings of more than regulators will set higher work stan­ Xiong’an in Hebei province, and toughened its rules for inbound Kingdom or other places that are Well­prepared, Lin Jiafei, 30, two people and the shutdown of dards and strive to promote high­ Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui travelers effective today. reported to have mutated strains spent only an hour at Shenzhen entertainment venues, such as quality development, Lu Dongfu, autonomous region, and Xining, From Dec 28 through Sunday, of the coronavirus have to be test­ Bay on Monday, as she arrived at bars, beauty salons and theaters. the company’s general manager, capital of Qinghai province. nearly 25,000 people have left ed five times. the checkpoint early in the morn­ Announcing the decision on Mon­ said. Despite the global spread of COV­ Hong Kong via three checkpoints A resident surnamed Mao left ing to avoid long lines. day, Secretary for Food and Health The company will improve servi­ ID­19, a record 12,400 freight trains — Shenzhen Bay, the Hong Kong­ Hong Kong via Shenzhen, for its Lin left for Shenzhen to take Sophia Chan Siu­chee said the rules ces by setting up a floating price sys­ carrying a total of 1.14 million con­ Zhuhai­Macao Bridge, and the neighboring city Huizhou, on Sun­ care of her art education business. are “not very likely” to be loosened tem, providing more online meal tainers operated between China and Hong Kong airport — up 23 per­ day. He spent roughly six hours She will return to her hometown before the Chinese New Year. ordering options, and setting up qui­ Europe last year. The number of cent from the previous week. waiting at Shenzhen Bay and an in Sichuan province for the Lunar “The number of new infections et carriages on some bullet trains. trains was up 50 percent year­on­ Among them, nearly 17,000 peo­ extra four hours before being New Year, where she could face is on the decline, but its rate is sig­ Lu said that as railway authorities year, while the freight volume was ple, overwhelmingly Hong Kong transferred to a Huizhou hotel. another round of quarantine man­ nificantly slower than that of the develop “smart” services to benefit 56 percent higher. residents, headed north via the “There was no washroom where dated by local authorities. last wave. There are still risks of passengers, they should also be The trains helped carry daily sup­ Shenzhen Bay checkpoint. On I was waiting, and I dared not to Meanwhile, the Hong Kong gov­ new cases rebounding. Large­scale aware of the needs of those who do plies and epidemic control goods Sunday alone, 3,607 people left the drink or eat. It was really frustrat­ ernment extended the city’s anti­ cluster outbreaks also occurred not have access to or are unable to between China and Europe, facili­ city via the sole land boundary ing,” said the 31­year­old, who coronavirus curbs through Jan 20, occasionally,” Chan said. use smartphone apps, such as the tating international cooperation in crossing open to travelers between attributed the long wait to a lack of citing a slow decrease in daily “Meanwhile, after fighting the elderly and foreigners, and main­ controlling the pandemic. the two cities, outnumbering the workers checking documents at caseloads and the possibility of a virus for months, residents are abid­ last peak on Dec 2 since the fourth counters on the Hong Kong side at rebound after all the holiday gath­ ing less by social distancing rules. A wave of the COVID­19 outbreak the boundary crossing. erings over the past two weeks. lot of people were seen on the streets Year of the Ox started in mid­November. Cathy Xu, a 22­year­old graduate The suspension of face­to­face over the past several holidays.” Starting Tuesday, travelers are student from City University of classes at the city’s kindergartens Hong Kong recorded 53 new required to present their booking Hong Kong, had a similar plight on and primary and secondary COVID­19 cases on Monday, records for a hotel room for two Monday when she spent four and schools, originally scheduled to including 43 local infections of weeks of quarantine before enter­ half hours at Shenzhen Bay with­ end Jan 10, was also extended until which six were untraceable, bring­ ing Shenzhen, in addition to out eating or drinking. Before that, after the Lunar New Year holiday ing the city’s tally to 9,017. acquiring a negative test result she was caught in a traffic jam near in mid­February. issued within the past 24 hours. the checkpoint, and it took a half­ Primary and secondary schools Contact the writers at According to the tougher policy, hour to make a journey that would can arrange half­day classes, but [email protected] Nation to maintain ‘strict’ governance By ZHANG YANGFEI Fujian province, Sun Lijun, former ues to improve,” the anti­graft bod­ [email protected] vice­minister of public security, and ies said. Zhang He, former vice­governor of In order to eliminate the problem China will maintain “strict” gov­ Hebei province. It shows the tough of gang crimes, authorities also tar­ ernance over the long run, the The CCDI also expelled a number line on corruption geted “protective umbrellas” and country’s top anti­graft bodies said of officials from the Party, including “networks”, referring to public offi­ A postal worker displays a set of special stamps celebrating the on Tuesday. Zhao Zhengyong, former Party continues to deter and cials who provide shelter for gang­ upcoming lunar Year of the Ox in Fuyang, Anhui province, on Mon­ The Communist Party of China chief of Shaanxi province, who was the effectiveness of sters. day. The stamps will be issued on Tuesday. LU QIJIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY Central Commission for Discipline later sentenced to death with a governance continues From January to November, dis­ Inspection and the National Super­ reprieve for bribes, Hu Huaibang, ciplinary and supervisory authori­ visory Commission said on their former secretary of the Party com­ to improve.” ties at all levels handled 29,600 website that they “vigorously mittee of China Development Bank, The Communist Party of China gang­related corruption cases, gave Briefly enforced the law and resolutely and Zhang Qi, a former member of Central Commission for Disci­ administrative penalties to 25,400 investigated and dealt with corrup­ the standing committee of Hainan’s pline Inspection and the Nation­ Party members and public officials, tion cases intertwined with politi­ provincial Party committee.