220 mln trips on Day 6 of Spring Festival travel rush

China

220 mln trips on Day 6 of Spring Festival travel rush

2026-02-08 09:31 Last Updated At：19:17

Over 220 million cross-regional passenger trips nationwide were estimated on Saturday, the 6th day of China's 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, 4.4 percent more than the day before, according to the Ministry of Transport.

On Saturday, railways nationwide were forecast to handle 13.8 million passenger trips, marking the sixth consecutive day that daily passenger trips topped 10 million.

Traffic volume on expressways has been on the rise, with an estimated over 40 million vehicles. Road travel is projected to facilitate 203.66 million passenger trips -- a day-on-day increase of 4.3 percent.

The civil aviation passenger volume was estimated to total 2.4 million, and the waterway passenger to rise 12.8 percent to 740,000.

According to China State Railway Group, a total of 140 million train tickets for the festival travel period had been sold via the nation's train ticket booking platform 12306 as of 08:00 on Saturday.

The Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, falls on February 17 this year, and the official holiday lasts nine days. The annual travel surge, known as chunyun and often described as the world's largest human migration, is expected to generate a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the 40-day period running from February 2 to March 13 this year.

Global food prices rise for 2nd consecutive month in March amid Middle East conflict: FAO

Global food commodity prices climbed for a second consecutive month in March, driven mainly by higher energy costs linked to escalating conflict in the Middle East, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said in report released on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 128.5 points in March, up 2.4 percent from February and 1.0 percent above its level a year ago.

According to the report, the FAO Vegetable Oil Index and Sugar Price Index showed the largest increases, up 5.1 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

The FAO Cereal Price Index increased by 1.5 percent from the previous month, driven primarily by higher world wheat prices, which rose 4.3 percent.

The FAO Meat Price Index rose by 1.0 percent from the previous month, and the FAO All-Rice Price Index declined by 3.0 percent in March, according to the report.

FAO stated that rising energy and fertilizer prices have been driving up agricultural input costs.

If the conflict stretches beyond 40 days, farmers will have to choose to farm the same with fewer inputs, plant less, or switch to less intensive fertilizer crops, according to FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero.

These choices will hit future yields and shape food supply and commodity prices for the rest of this year and beyond, Torero said.