BEIJING — Every winter, Mr Pang Qingguo, a fruit seller in northern China, makes the 800-mile (1,290km) trip to his ancestral home to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year in China, with his family.

The coronavirus ruined the festivities last year, stranding Mr Pang in the northern city of Tangshan as many Chinese cities imposed lockdowns.

Now, as China confronts a resurgence of the virus, the pandemic is set to spoil the holiday again, with authorities announcing onerous quarantine and testing rules to dissuade migrant workers like Mr Pang from travelling for the new year, which begins this year on Feb 12.

Mr Pang, who describes his home in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang as the “happiest place”, is anguished by the rules. He has taken to social media in recent days to express frustration about his situation and post photos of his 7-year-old daughter, whom he has not seen in more than a year.

“Society is so cruel,” he wrote in one post.

“I really miss my daughter,” Mr Pang, 31, said in an interview. “But there’s nothing I can do.”

Many of China’s roughly 300 million migrant workers face a similar reality as the government tries to avoid a surge in cases during what is typically the busiest travel season of the year.

Authorities have demanded that people visiting rural areas during the holiday spend two weeks in quarantine and pay for their own coronavirus tests. Many migrants, who endure grueling jobs for meager wages in big cities, say those restrictions make it impossible to travel.

The rollout of the rules has drawn widespread criticism in China, with many people calling the approach unfair to migrant workers, who have long been treated as second-class citizens under China’s strict household registration system.

Without that registration, migrant labourers cannot access social or medical services in the cities where they work. The workers have been among the hardest hit in China by the pandemic, as authorities have carried out scattered lockdowns to fight the virus and employers have reduced hours and pay.

In a normal year, hundreds of millions of people travel by plane, train and car to be with their families for Chinese New Year. The holiday, which typically includes big festive banquets and fireworks, is normally the only time many workers can return to their hometowns to see loved ones. This year, many are making plans to spend the holiday alone.

Ms Zhu Xiaomei, who works at a fabric store in the eastern city of Hangzhou, typically makes the 30-hour journey by train to her hometown in the southwestern province of Sichuan to be with family.

This year she will spend the holiday alone for the first time, inside her 130-square-foot dormitory, which lacks a kitchen.

“Of course it is a bit upsetting,” Ms Zhu, 40, said. “I have never experienced this feeling.”

For many Chinese families the holiday will represent a second year that the pandemic has kept them apart. Just hours before the start of Chinese New Year last year, authorities in China imposed sweeping lockdowns and suspended trains and planes across the country.

In a matter of hours, more than 35 million people in the city of Wuhan and the surrounding areas were ordered to stay at home.

Chinese officials are concerned that widespread travel could give rise to fresh outbreaks, especially in rural areas, where testing is less common and there has been some resistance to quarantines and other public health measures.

While China’s outbreak is relatively under control compared to other countries and life is largely normal in many cities, clusters of new cases have emerged in recent weeks, prompting sporadic lockdowns and mass testing efforts.

Chinese officials have vowed to vaccinate 50 million people before Chinese New Year, but questions remain about the efficacy of some Chinese-made vaccines.

Authorities still expect hundreds of millions of people to travel during the Chinese New Year season, which lasts from January to March, despite the threat posed by the virus.

Many of those travellers are going to large cities, not just rural areas. Several major cities in recent days have tightened restrictions on travel. Beijing is requiring visitors to test negative for the virus before being granted entry.

The Chinese government, in response to the migrants’ outrage over the new restrictions, has tried to offer sweeteners — including gift baskets, activities and shopping discounts — to encourage them to stay put.

In the run-up to the holiday, the government has led a propaganda campaign aimed at persuading migrant workers to avoid travelling home. Large red banners invoking filial piety and model citizen behaviour have started to appear on city streets.

“Mask or a ventilator? You pick one of the two,” reads one banner.

“If you come home with the disease, you are unfilial,” another exclaims.

“If you spread the disease to your mother and father, then you are utterly devoid of a conscience,” a third banner reads.

The holiday restrictions have added to a difficult time for many migrant workers in China. Many did not work for months last year as the economy came to a standstill amid lockdowns and other restrictions.

While wealthier workers in China largely kept their jobs during the pandemic, many migrants struggled to make a living amid cuts to their paychecks and hours. THE NEW YORK TIMES