Spring Festival: What's Open and Closed

The exodus has begun. Many will surely have noticed an improvement in traffic that cant be attributed to the new traffic implementations. Jianbing stalls and little street trinket stalls are becoming sparse. People are on the move.

So for those of us who will be here over spring festival, what will be open and closed over the break?

This is a brief roundup of closures we know about, but a rule of thumb throughout the break is phone ahead before going anywhere.

All government institutions, banks and post offices will have different opening and closing hours, so be aware of this if you are planning on needing to frequent these.

Many of our favourite restaurants, bars and shops will be open, albeit some on restricted trading hours. According to the Global Times, most of the Annie's restaurants will remain open, as will Element Fresh and Jenny Lou's. For more specific opening hours you can read there article here. Enoterra have also said they are open throughout the break.

It'll be quiet times in terms of rock in the capital. MAO Livehouse will be shut from Feb 1-8, while the nearby Jiang Hu will have a break from today (Jan 31) to Feb 6. Yugong Yishan has no gigs scheduled from today until Bob Marley Day on February 6. Hot Cat Club will stay open during the spring festival and serve free dumplings during Feb 2-5 (free entry). D-22 will be closed from Feb 1-11.

Siif is looking to attract people stuck in Beijing for the holiday, with a dumpling-making session on New Year's Eve (Feb 2, free entry).

School Bar will have a break for about half a month from January 31 to "around" February 17. They will also be doing some renovations during that time.

On February 3 Yonghegong Dajie will be closed to road traffic from 6am-3pm from Yonghegong Qiao over the Second Ring Road, down to Beixinqiao intersection. Buses that normally pass along this street will be detoured.

Yonghegong Subway Station will also be closed on February 3 from subway opening to 3pm, meaning Line 2 and 5 subway trains will not be stopping there. For those on line 2, Andingmen is the nearest station that will be open, and for those on Line 5, Beixinqiao is only a short distance from Yonghegong.

As this writer unfortunately found out yesterday, many tailors in Beijing have curtailed their operations over the Spring Festival as their workers have all returned to Jiangxi province. Evidently, all people in Jiangxi are born with a needle in one hand, and thread in the other.

The People's Railway Daily reports that 10.6 million passengers will leave Beijing by train during the 40-day Spring Festival travel period, with volume peaking at 750,000 per day on January 31 and February 2, New Year's Eve. Many of those travelers number among Beijing's 5.092 million permanent residents with non-Beijing hukou, who accounted for 29 percent of the total population of 17.55 million in 2009, according to a Beijing News report.

For those who are leaving, happy travels! For those who are staying, enjoy the fireworks!