BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of millions of Chinese criss-cross the country during the Lunar New Year holidays each year to reunite with families back in their hometowns or for sight-seeing during an extended festive period, making it the world's largest annual human migration.
The Lunar New Year travel rush, known as Chunyun in Chinese, is often seen as a barometer for China's economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system.
How long is it?
This year's Lunar New Year travel rush kicked off on Tuesday and will last for 40 days, concluding on Feb. 22.
The official Spring Festival holidays, as the new year celebrations are known in China, will run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4.
How many trips are expected?
Officials are expecting a record 9 billion domestic trips during the 40-day period, an increase from the around 8.4 billion trips logged last year.
Annual official tallies of trips made during the travel rush have jumped since the Ministry of Transport revised the metric before the 2023 Lunar New Year to include road trips on major national expressways.
The metric was changed again before the 2024 celebrations to include road trips made on more highways.
A total of 2.98 billion trips was recorded in the 2019 travel rush, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
How are people travelling?
Road trips, expected to reach 7.2 billion journeys this year, are projected to account for about 80% of all trips, followed by train and air travel.
Rail travel is set to hit a record 510 million trips, a 5.5% year-on-year increase, while air travel is expected to exceed 90 million trips.
What are the most popular destinations?
Top air travel destinations include cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing, Harbin and Xian, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Railway hotspots include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Wuhan, the state railway operator said.
Internationally, flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Singapore are also seeing strong demand, according to the civil aviation regulator.
How many trips were made on Day 1?
On the first day of Chunyun, total domestic travel is expected to reach 172.39 million trips, including 159.52 million by road, 10.3 million by rail, 2.04 million by air and 530,000 by waterways, the transport ministry said on Tuesday.
What is different for this year?
This year's travel rush comes as China extended the official Spring Festival break by one day to eight days.
The country also expanded its visa-free entry policy to 38 countries, including nearby Japan and South Korea, and doubled the stay period to 30 days.
For eligible foreign transit travellers, the permitted stay was extended to 10 days. It was up to six days previously.