China's Spring Festival travel rush begins with record 9 billion trips expected

NEW TRIPS, NEW FACES

This year marks the first Spring Festival travel rush since the Chinese New Year was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list, as well as the first with an extended eight-day Spring Festival holiday.

"The combined effect of these factors will further stimulate demand for travels related to family reunions and tourism," said Yang Zhusong, an associate researcher at Tsinghua University.

In the city of Wuhan, a key transport hub in Central China, the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is expected to handle 3.76 million passenger trips during the holiday travel rush, up 14.6 percent year on year.

"Ice and snow destinations such as Harbin, Changchun and Shenyang, as well as sunny coastal locations like Haikou, Sanya, Hong Kong and Singapore, are the most popular routes from Wuhan," said Wu Chengkai, deputy general manager of the airport.

Online travel giant Ctrip reported a 51-percent year-on-year increase in searches for overseas trips ahead of chunyun. Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Southeast Asia emerged as the top destinations. Searches for Japan and the ROK more than doubled from last year.

Interest in long-haul travel is also growing, with searches for destinations in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America increasing by more than 50 percent.

Spring Festival is also seeing an increase in foreign visitors, with travel orders from international tourists surging by 203 percent compared to the same period of 2024, partially thanks to China's expansion of its visa-free transit policy to permit eligible foreign travelers to stay in the country for 240 hours.

An improved payment environment, bilingual signage and various other supports have enhanced the convenience of traveling in China for foreign tourists. The 12306 China Railway online ticketing platform, now accessible to international users, enables them to explore both bustling urban centers and remote destinations with ease.

On Tuesday, Polish student Ratajczak Paulina Magdalena boarded a flight from Shanghai to Northeast China's Liaoning province. "This is my first time experiencing the Spring Festival travel rush," she said. "There are a lot of people but they are in good order."

She plans to bring her mother and friends to explore different cities, and to celebrate Spring Festival by visiting festive fairs and enjoying lantern displays.

German businessman Wolf Steffen, 58, and his wife drove more than 1,400 kilometers from Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu province, to Fuxin in Liaoning for their Spring Festival vacation.

His car is a NEV. "NEVs are environmentally friendly and China's infrastructure is very good," he said, explaining his chosen transportation method.

Steffen has been impressed by chunyun. "It was spectacular. Everyone is heading home, just as what we did for Christmas. The tradition is heart-warming."

For Liu Limei, a professor at the Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics, the significance of chunyun goes beyond the journey itself. "Amid the 9 billion journeys being made, we see the advancements in transportation, the growth of the economy, a longing for home and a yearning for a better life."