China's transportation networks were expected to handle over 7 billion cross-region passenger trips in the first 30 days of the ongoing Spring Festival travel rush.
The travel rush, known as 'chunyun', is considered the world's largest annual human migration and coincides with China's biggest traditional celebration, the Spring Festival, a time when hundreds of millions of people return home for family reunions to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which fell on Jan. 29 this year.
This year, the travel rush runs from Jan 14 to Feb 22, lasting for 40 days.
On Wednesday, the country's railway network was predicted to transport 10.3 million passengers, with 702 trains being added to accommodate the surging demand.
Starting Thursday, the flow of returning students and migrant workers will increase significantly, ushering in the second peak of passenger flow after the holiday.
In the road transport sector, about 170 million trips were recorded on Wednesday. Various regions have continued to provide ample charging support services for new energy vehicles to smooth travel of drivers returning to work, such as adding charging facilities, optimizing service processes, and strengthening technical support in places like Tangxian County in north China's Hebei Province.
In the civil aviation sector, 17,000 flights were in operation nationwide, handling 2 million passenger trips on Wednesday.
The waterways were estimated to handle 620,000 passenger trips on Wednesday.
Over 7 bln trips expected on first 30 days of China's 2025 Spring Festival rush
