Trips: Total expected to be 70% of 2019 volume

As China has optimized its epidemic management recently, the number of passenger trips are expected to dramatically surge during this year's Spring Festival travel rush compared with last year, bringing back the familiar hustle and bustle life across the country.

About 2.1 billion passenger trips are expected to be made during the period, a year-on-year increase of 99.5 percent, Vice-Minister of Transport Xu Chengguang said at a news conference on Friday when introducing authorities' preparations for the 40-day travel rush, which begins on Saturday.

This year's travel rush will start on Saturday and end on Feb 15. The Spring Festival will fall on Jan 22, and travel usually peaks before and after the seven-day holiday.

The volume of passenger trips is expected to be around 70.3 percent of the total in 2019.

"More than half of the passengers will travel to visit their families, while about 24 percent will be migrant workers returning home and about 10 percent will travel for tourism and business," Xu said.

This year's travel rush will be the first since China recently optimized its epidemic control management.

China's Spring Festival travel rush has been the world's biggest annual human migration for decades. In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 3 billion trips were made during the 40-day period.

Since 2020, people have been encouraged to avoid traveling during the festival to prevent infection and transmission.

During the festival in 2022, 1.05 billion trips were made, compared with 870 million in 2021, and 1.5 billion in 2020.

China optimized its epidemic control management recently, and epidemic measures for travel were also optimized last month.

Travelers no longer need negative nucleic acid test results or health codes, are not required to undergo nucleic acid testing or health inspection upon arrival, and will not have their temperatures checked.

A Beijing office worker surnamed Peng plans to visit her family in Hunan province during the holiday.

"It will be the first time to celebrate the Spring Festival with my family in three years. I really miss the feeling of getting together with my family, and I can finally see my 4-year-old nephew again," she said.

Wang Yiting took a train from Beijing to Datong, Shanxi province, on Friday.

"It is much easier to travel without a health code and all other requirements, and there is no more lining up at the entrance to scan the QR code," she said.

Wang returned home one day ahead of the travel rush to avoid the crowds.

Xu, the vice-minister of transport, said the 2023 Spring Festival Transportation Special Group is working with different government departments to encourage off-peak and flexible leave to reduce pressure on the transport system.

Xu is also the deputy director of the 2023 Spring Festival Transportation Special Group, a working group to enhance coordination among different departments to deal with all kinds of issues during the travel rush.

"It will be the most uncertain, complicated and challenging Spring Festival travel rush in recent years," Xu said, noting that the peak of human migration will coincide with that of the epidemic.

The transport sector has made efforts to meet travel needs safely, he said, and more transport services will be provided accordingly.

Airline companies are encouraged to add more domestic flights flexibly during the travel rush to meet the increasing travel needs, said Wan Xiangdong, chief pilot of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

During the travel rush, about 11,000 flights will be provided on average each day, about 73 percent of the volume in 2019.

Peak days are expected to be from Jan 18 to 20 with popular routes being Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Haikou, Shenzhen-Kunming and Shenzhen-Chongqing, Wan said.

Better services at transportation hubs are being provided to benefit passengers.

To make travel easier, more channels — such as for security and ticket checks — will be opened to allow passengers to enter Qinghe Railway Station in Beijing, said Wang Xiaoyong, head of the station.

"This aims to improve passengers' experiences during the travel rush and reduce waiting times," he said.