Videos and photos on social media over the weekend showed massive crowds at the family’s village home. Long queues snaked across fields as people waited for their meals.
Local authorities also stepped in, according to Chinese media reports – dispatching catering teams and workers to help Daidai and her family as well as distributing gifts and free tickets to popular tourist spots. Traffic police officers were also deployed to maintain order.
More than 10,000 people arrived in the village over two days, reports said, with thousands of vehicles also arriving in the area.
“By Saturday and Sunday, the roads leading to Qingfu village were gridlocked by a 10km traffic jam as visitors arrived from as far as Guangdong province, bringing gifts as if visiting long-lost relatives,” read an article published on the China Daily state news site.
“The turnout was so massive that Daidai’s original two pigs were woefully insufficient. In total, five pigs were slaughtered to feed a rotating crowd of over 3,000 people,” the report added.
On Jan 13, Daidai shared a post thanking local authorities and volunteers for their trust and support in showing up.
She shared that she had barely slept and was very tired. Her mother was also exhausted after days of nonstop hosting and cleaning up, Daidai said.
On Xiaohongshu, users shared their reactions. “She’s the first person brave enough to invite the whole country to dinner,” one user wrote.
A Xiaohongshu user known as Man Jie, shared her experience of heading to Daidai’s home on Jan 12. She saw crowds of people carrying bags – reminding her of visiting relatives during Chinese New Year.
Traffic jams were also long, she said. “Even if you wanted to drive there directly, you couldn’t – so I had to park my car and walk there.”
Source: CNA
