China's Lunar New Year travel rush passes midpoint, records 5.08 billion trips

Beijing (ANTARA) — As of Saturday (21/2), China’s 2026 Spring Festival or Lunar New Year travel season has passed its midpoint, with inter-regional passenger trips reaching 5.08 billion in the first 20 days, according to China’s Ministry of Transport on Sunday (22/2).

Of the total, road travel accounted for 4.76 billion trips, whilst China’s railway services handled 258 million journeys. Waterway and civil aviation services recorded 19.99 million and 47.52 million passenger trips respectively.

The annual travel surge, known as chunyun and often described as the world’s largest human migration, is projected to set a record of 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the 40-day period running from 2 February to 13 March this year, according to earlier estimates.