664 Shanghai tourists arrive home from Japan
- Source: Global Times
- [08:30 March 14 2011]
- Comments
Shanghai tourists land at the Hongqiao airport yesterday via China Eastern Airlines. Photo: Xinhua
By Yao Fangqin
Some 664 of the 1,550 Shanghai tourists in Japan at the time of the earthquake and tsunami on Friday cut their travel short and arrived back home safely yesterday while another 367 more were expected to land in the city today, local tourism authorities said yesterday.
A total of 55 Shanghai tour groups were in Japan when the disaster struck last week, according to a written statement released yesterday by the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration. It said that the remaining 519 tourists from 11 Shanghai tour groups are expected to return to Shanghai as soon as possible.
The administration also confirmed that all of the tourists from the Shanghai tour groups were safe.
Luo Anping, a press officer for Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, said yesterday that they are doing everything they can to help with the situation.
"We have an A330 plane on standby at the Pudong airport," he told the Global Times yesterday. "It will bring the Shanghai tourists back from Japan when the flight is finalized."
One of the Shanghai tourists, surnamed Wang, who returned home from Osaka yesterday, said he was feeling very relieved to be back on home soil.
"Even though Osaka wasn't at the center of the quake, I was in a bit of a panic at the time," he told the Global Times yesterday.
Wang and the others yesterday returned to the city via direct flights from Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport as well as Niigata Airport, located on Japan's largest island, Honshu.
Of the Shanghai tourists that returned yesterday, 39 had come from Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo, according to Jiang Weihao, deputy manager of Japan travel for Shanghai Spring International Travel Service.
"They managed to get back by departing from airports in nearby cities," he told the Global Times yesterday. "It was a bit of a detour, but they had no choice since the nearest airport in Ibaraki was still closed yesterday.
"They were a bit shaken, but luckily no one was injured," he added.