Hundreds of Millions in Asia Celebrate Year of the Snake

A group of women pose for photos under decorations for a temple fair ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing - AFP
A group of women pose for photos under decorations for a temple fair ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing - AFP
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Hundreds of Millions in Asia Celebrate Year of the Snake

A group of women pose for photos under decorations for a temple fair ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing - AFP
A group of women pose for photos under decorations for a temple fair ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing - AFP

From incense offerings and vibrant lion dances in Beijing to prayer rituals at temples in Bangkok and Taipei, hundreds of millions of people across Asia celebrated the Lunar New Year on Wednesday, ushering in the Year of the Snake.

In China, people enjoy eight consecutive public holidays for the 2025 Spring Festival, an opportunity to share meals, attend traditional performances and set off 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.

Temples and parks in the Chinese capital on Wednesday were full with people braving freezing temperatures to bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon with dancing and prayers, AFP reported.
High streets, shopping malls, offices and homes were bedecked in festive red banners -- believed to ward off evil -- throughout many parts of East and Southeast Asia, including South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

In Taiwan on Wednesday morning, people of all ages poured into temples to make offerings of fruit, sweets, crackers and nuts.

"Our tradition is to visit the temple and pray, for better fortune for this year," said Chen Ching-yuan, 36, as she visited Longshan Temple in Taipei with her mother.

"There's no need to ask for anything specific, just wish for a smooth, peaceful, safe and healthy year, and pray that everything goes well."

Some temple-goers ushered in the new year by racing to be the first to light incense in the pursuit of good fortune.

"I didn't want to look back with regret when I'm old, so I decided to go for it," Kao Meng-shun said from Fusing Temple in Yunlin County, in the central-west of Taiwan.

In Bangkok, throngs of locals and tourists made their way to Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, the capital's most revered Chinese temple.

Built in 1871 by immigrants from southern China, the temple marks its 154th anniversary this year and remains a key worshipping site for the Thai-Chinese community.

Sasakorn Udomrat, 56, has been coming to the temple for eight consecutive years.

"I have many Thai-Chinese friends who say this temple is very sacred," she said. "I don't ask for anything in particular, just good health."

Another worshipper Nawarat Yaowanin, 42, told AFP: "According to the Chinese calendar, it's a brewing year for me," she said.

"I came here to pay my respects and hope to ward off bad luck."

Crowds also filled the streets in the Philippine and Indonesian capitals for vibrant lion dance parades.

 

- Snow slows travel -

 

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

Train and air travel are expected to "hit record highs" during this year's migration, state news agency Xinhua said.

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

Passengers were seen at Seoul's main train station carrying gifts and luggage as they prepared to leave.

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 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 it expected more than 2.1 million overseas-bound passengers 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.

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.



How Did a Jet Flip Upside Down on a Toronto Runway and Everyone Survive?

A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
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How Did a Jet Flip Upside Down on a Toronto Runway and Everyone Survive?

A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)

Investigators are probing the causes of an unusual plane crash at Canada's largest airport on Monday, when a regional jet flipped upside down upon landing during windy weather, sending 21 of the 80 people on board to hospital.

Video shows the Delta Air Lines plane belly up and missing its right wing at Toronto's Pearson Airport, and of the crash that involved no fatalities, circulated widely on social media. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said on Tuesday that parts of the plane -- a Bombardier-made CRJ900 -- separated after impact and the fuselage came to rest slightly off the right side of the runway, upside down, facing the other direction.

The TSB said it is too early to know what happened and why. Here is what we know about this accident and similar crashes.

HOW DOES A PLANE LAND UPSIDE DOWN?

US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said aircraft are normally designed to land first on the two main landing gear, and then the nose gear. While the cause of the accident is unclear, the type of impact on the runway likely damaged the landing gear, leaving the plane imbalanced.

Brickhouse said that the plane ending up pointing in the opposite direction speaks to the amount of force and speed that led it to change direction.

"With all the forces and everything going on, if that wing is not there to support the aircraft it's going to go over," Brickhouse said. "It's not something that we see regularly, but when structures start failing, they can't do their job and the aircraft is going to react to the different forces on it."

HOW DID EVERYONE SURVIVE?

Passengers say they were hanging upside down in their seats after the crash.

"All of the passengers were wearing the safety belts. This prevented more serious injuries from occurring," said Mitchell Fox, director of the Asia Pacific Center for Aviation Safety.

Airplane seats are designed to withstand the force of 16 times the normal pull of gravity, or 16Gs, in a crash, whereas wings and fuselage are designed to handle 3-5Gs.

"In an impact-survivable crash, it's more important for the seats to hold up, giving passengers the best chance of survival," said Raj Ladani, a program manager for aerospace engineering at Australia's RMIT University. Good evacuation is key to air accident survivability, as witnessed last year when all 379 people escaped a burning Japan Airlines plane after a runway collision.

"The crew did a remarkable job of evacuating all of the passengers expeditiously," Fox said of the Delta crash.

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

While rare, there have been cases of large jets flipping over on landing, including three accidents involving McDonnell Douglas' MD-11 model.

In 2009, a FedEx freighter turned over on landing in windy conditions on the runway at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing both pilots. The left wing was broken and separated from the fuselage attaching point and the airplane caught fire.

In 1999, a China Airlines flight inverted at Hong Kong while landing during a typhoon. The plane touched down hard, flipped over and caught fire, killing three of 315 occupants.

In 1997, another FedEx freighter flipped over at Newark in the United States, with no fatalities.

Brickhouse said it is too early to draw any conclusions from these earlier cases, especially as the MD-11 is a three-engine aircraft and the CRJ900 has two engines mounted toward the back of the aircraft, producing different flight dynamics.

HOW WILL THE INVESTIGATION PROCEED?

Unlike other investigations in which parts of the plane have gone missing, and there are mass fatalities, investigators will be able to interview all 76 passengers and four crew.

Investigators have access to the fuselage and wing, which are on the runway, and the black boxes -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- have been sent for analysis.

"This is going to be a textbook investigation," Brickhouse said. "Some accidents, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle are missing. But right now looking at this accident, all the puzzle pieces are there. It's just you piecing them back together at this point."