Unlike hundreds of millions of other people in China, Wanru Zhang will not see his family during the Lunar New Year holiday.
He would usually travel 200 kilometres to his rural hometown to celebrate, but this year he's following the advice issued by authorities.
Many have asked people to stay where they are, while some have taken it a step further, offering payments and other incentives to encourage people not to travel.
Still, Chinese authorities expect 1.18 billion trips to be made during the travel season for Lunar New Year, which falls on February 1, despite a drop in movement because of the pandemic, state media says.
However, Mr Zhang won't be among them.
He has decided to stay in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province in eastern China, where he owns a small restaurant with his wife.
Even though he can't see his parents, he is happy his restaurant will operate as usual.
That's possible because, currently, Hefei is free from COVID-19.
"Life in China has mostly been normal," Mr Zhang said.
He supports the Chinese government's COVID-zero policy.
It includes strict lockdowns, mass testing, tightly controlled international borders, as well as tracking and directing people's movements with an app.
Mr Zhang said China's medical system would be overwhelmed if the virus was allowed to rip through the population.
Payment offered to some to stop travel
The government authority in charge of Hefei, where Mr Zhang lives, is handing out payments worth 1,000 yuan ($218) to non-local workers, who would likely travel during the holiday, to entice them to stay put.
It has placed several other conditions on who can access the incentive — the worker must be employed by a large corporation or business, detailed on a government-approved list that is not publicly available.
The worker must also be paying local insurance, the equivalent of Chinese superannuation, and provide evidence of not travelling over the holiday.
Then their employer must apply for the money on behalf of their employee and, in turn, transfer the money into the worker's bank account.
Other cities in China, such as Shaoxing and Wuhu, are also offering payments to people to discourage travel.
Mr Zhang doesn't think the money will stop people travelling.
"Personally, I don't see the point of the incentive because poor people like us who need the money are not eligible, and rich people who are eligible won't stay behind if they can go home to their families," he said.
Mr Zhang is a migrant worker but doesn't qualify for the payment because he doesn't pay the relevant insurance.
"Many migrant workers choose to not pay it. It's too expensive," Mr Zhang said.
In China, a migrant worker is typically a person from a rural area working in a city in an industry such as construction or hospitality.
"I'd rather save the money myself so that I could afford the down-payment for an apartment," Mr Zhang said.
It's not the first time local governments have used these initiatives to try to stem mass migration over the Lunar New Year period.
Instead of payments, Mr Zhang hopes the Hefei local government authority will issue coupons through mobile payment platform Alipay, to drive local consumption, just like what happened last year.
The coupons could be spent in restaurants and other hospitality venues.
China has used digital coupons throughout the pandemic to stimulate the economy.
Some provinces in China are offering coupons to residents this new year holiday.
In the small city of Jinhua, in Zhejiang province, 16 e-vouchers valued at roughly $11 each are up for grabs per person.
Back in Hefei, in addition to the payment, the government is also encouraging businesses to help keep their workers at home over the holidays by offering coupons for restaurants, mobile data packages and movie tickets.
Dr Wei Li — a lecturer at the University of Sydney's business school — said the payment system lacked "an established process for local governments to prevent misreporting against the eligibility criteria and overpayment".
Approval for travel difficult
As China attempts to control outbreaks of the Omicron variant ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games — which are set to start on February 4 — the capital reported its first Omicron case over the weekend.
Travellers coming into Beijing are now required to get tested within 72 hours of arriving in Beijing, after the Omicron case was detected recently in a person who had visited multiple shopping areas and restaurants, Reuters reports.
Tianjin — a neighbouring city with close economic ties to the capital — has been battling an outbreak involving the Omicron variant.
Luna Jiang is a public servant in Tianjin and, even though the city is not in lockdown yet, she needs permission from her workplace to travel.
"Every news report says residents are only 'encouraged' to stay put for Chinese New Year but, in reality, it's a different situation," Ms Jiang said.
"The principle is, 'Whoever approves you to leave must be responsible', so workplaces don't want to be responsible if anything goes wrong."
Henan province's government has also urged people to stay in the area, and has implemented some restrictions, including bans of large public gatherings.
Shanghai's government has also advised residents not to leave nor return to the city over the new year, unless it is essential.
Despite this, resident Wendy Wang plans to travel home to Jiangxi then back to Shanghai during the holiday.
The bank manager understands the government is trying to control the spread of the virus during the holiday but said government rules should not get in the way of people's everyday lives.
"Extreme measures like requiring multiple tests just to live, day to day, or requiring children to be in quarantine for long periods aren't necessary," Ms Wang said.
What other obstacles do travellers face?
In addition to the requests issued by local authorities, travelling within China over the holiday is further complicated by a raft of other measures.
They include notifying governments of travel plans, PCR tests pre-departure and on arrival and, in some places, a requirement of 14 days of home quarantine.
Residents from areas classified as medium- or high-risk destinations face many travel restrictions.
In Xi'an — where some areas have been in lockdown since December — some residents are now able to apply to their workplace or local community administration for approval to travel.
China reported 119 new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the day of January 15, according to National Health Commission (NHC) data published on January 16.
The new, locally transmitted cases were in Tianjin, Henan, Beijing, Guangdong and Shaanxi, the NHC said.
Over the course of the pandemic until January 15, China has confirmed 104,864 cases.
The country's official caseload does also not include thousands of asymptomatic cases, which are classified separately to symptomatic infections.
China's pandemic deaths remain at 4,636.
