Blood-Sucking Bedbugs Worry China’s Rail Travelers
2013-10-16 17:24:10
Summary：Millions of Chinese have been bitten by the travel bug. Now, those bites may have become literal. Concerns about...
Millions of Chinese have been bitten by the travel bug. Now, those bites may have become literal. Concerns about bedbugs invading China’s railways are gaining steam among social-media users, local media and local authorities after one user on China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo reported finding visible bedbugs on a train that travels between Shanghai and Beijing. The user posted a videoof the bugs in late-August, which has since gone viral.
Passengers wait to board a train in Chengdu.
Authorities such as the Qidong Security Bureau in China’s coastal Jiangsu province are warning travelers of the potential problem, suggesting they wash clothing frequently and check their luggage for bugs to prevent carrying eggs home and otherwise spreading any infestation.
Officials in Shanghai aretelling travelers to soak clothing in boiling water to kill any possible adult bugs and eggs.
A spokesman for the Shanghai Railway Bureau declined to comment on the alleged problem, saying, “We do not manage this.”
The bedbug scare is hitting China’s railways amid a peak travel season. Next week millions of Chinese will celebrate the weeklong national holiday by traveling across the nation to visit family and friends or explore other cities and towns, and trains are one of the most popular transportation methods.
Bedbugs, brown or red parasites that feed off human blood and can grow to the size of an apple seed, can leave bite marks or welts and spread easily by hitching a ride on clothing or other belongings. High-traffic places put humans at the highest risk of encountering the bugs, which are not believed to carry disease but can cause physical and psychological problems.
Widespread use of insecticides in the 1940s was believed to have wiped out the pest in the U.S., but bedbugs made a comeback and infestations have plagued big cities in recent years. Cities like New York have been fighting the problem for years. An epidemic in 2010 was so bad that the pests spread to movie theaters, the United Nations and tourist hot spots like the Empire State Building, while retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret were forced to temporarily close some outlets.
China’s railway policy is to change the bedding on trains after each journey. Yet many social media users question whether that policy is always followed.
“Change the bedding per passenger? I saw the quilt crinkled so many times when I entered (the carriage),” one Weibo user said. “Can you at least change per year? I am afraid that you may never change it,” said another.
Others said worries about bedbugs may deter them from traveling by rail during the coming holiday. “I planned to travel by railway, but now I dare not do that in case I got bugged,” said another user based in Beijing.