Many mainland Chinese people are currently on their way back home for the Lunar New Year, only to encounter the widest and strongest rain and snow weather since this winter, affecting many people. Some individuals have reported that what used to be a 2-hour car journey took them a whole day to reach home. Others even had to live stream online to ask for directions due to multiple impassable roads in order to navigate out of the blizzard.
According to reports from the mainland media Autohome, the number of people traveling home in 2025 has reached a new historical high. Relevant departments predict that the number of self-driving trips during the holiday period is expected to reach 7.2 billion person-times. In regions such as Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan, where the flow of returning vehicles is more concentrated, noticeable congestions and slower traffic have been observed on highways. Many people took to the roads earlier to avoid getting stuck in traffic. Consequently, heavy to blizzard snowfall has recently been seen in many places like Henan and Xi’an, leading to numerous highways being congested or under control measures.
As reported by Jiu Pai News, on January 24, Ms. Fang, along with her husband, younger brother, and sister, drove back to their hometown in Yueyang, Hunan from Luoyang, Henan to celebrate the Lunar New Year. She mentioned that heavy snowfall began from the night of the 23rd, but they did not realize the severity of the situation at the time. They initially thought that it would take about 7 hours to drive back home entirely on the highway and be able to rest at home by the night of the 24th. However, upon departure, they found that the highway was closed. Not knowing the road conditions in Henan and faced with a lot of snow accumulation on the road, finding a route became the most time-consuming challenge for her. Feeling on the verge of a breakdown multiple times along the way, she had to resort to live streaming on social media platforms. With the help of online users guiding her, she finally made it home in the early hours of the 26th.
She said, “This blizzard made us a day late returning home.” They had prepared instant noodles for the journey, but without hot water, they ended up hungry until the afternoon of the 25th when they finally ate a meal. “Nevertheless, we were fortunate to arrive safely in the end.”
Mr. Yang, who works in Xi’an, along with his wife and two children, set off in their electric car on the morning of the 25th with the intention of traveling to nearby Shangluo City, a journey that should have taken only 2 hours but ended up taking 24 hours.
He explained that from the Baqiao toll station onto the highway, after about 40 kilometers, the road began to congest and the snowfall intensified. “At this point, I started feeling immense anxiety because my car is electric and its battery depletes rapidly in winter. Moreover, if we didn’t reach a service area, we wouldn’t be able to recharge, and I had two children aged over 3 with me. To conserve energy, I didn’t dare to turn on the heater, so I had to make sure everyone wore extra layers to keep warm.”
Fortunately, an ambulance appeared ahead, and they followed it to reach a service area. They then rested in the car overnight, recharged the car’s battery sufficiently, and only set off the next morning after the roads cleared up a little, eventually arriving home around 10 a.m. on the 26th.
Furthermore, a netizen returning from Shenzhen to Guangxi also shared their experience, mentioning that it took them 3 service areas between Shenzhen and Nanning to recharge. A journey that usually takes 8 hours ended up taking 15 hours this time before reaching home.