China sees over 1.4B inter-regional trips in 1st week of Spring Festival travel rush

Travelers are pictured on train No. K4069 at Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, early on Feb. 2, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]

China recorded more than 1.4 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the first week of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, transport authorities said on Monday.

From Feb. 2 to 8, road travel exceeded 1.3 billion trips, while railways handled more than 86 million passenger trips. Waterway passenger trips topped 4.9 million, and civil aviation passenger trips exceeded 16 million, according to the Ministry of Transport.

On Sunday, the seventh day of the travel rush, inter-regional passenger trips totaled 227.71 million -- up 2.3 percent from the same period last year.

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