Passenger trips to double for coming travel rush in 2022

China’s passenger trips for the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival travel rush, the world’s largest annual human migration to take place from January 17 to February 25, are expected to double last year’s numbers, Cai Tuanjie, spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport, announced in the preliminary estimations on Friday.

While travel during the holidays is expected to record a big jump, it is still only half of what it was on the same period before the epidemic.

The travel rush, which overlaps with the Winter Olympic Games and the two political sessions that come after, gives signs about the foreseeable severity of the epidemic prevention and control tasks ahead, Cai mentioned during the press conference by the State Council Information Office.

The Spring Festival travel period in 2022 will have last for 40 days, starting from January 17 to February 25, which overlaps with the Beijing Winter Olympic Games to be held between February 4 and 20.

To guarantee a smooth travel during the holidays while ensuring the effective epidemic prevention is in place, the ministry is already on the move ahead of the festivities.

Part of the transportation plan for the Beijing Winter Olympics will be activated on January 4 next year and a 55-day comprehensive transportation scheme will be officially launched on January 21, Cai mentioned.

The Ministry of Transport, in conjunction with relevant departments and units, has set up a special work team for the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush to coordinate the prevention and control of the epidemic, according to the announcement.

Up to now, with the joint efforts of all parties, the Winter Olympics transportation infrastructure has all been put into service.

The Spring Festival travel rush saw a total of 1.476 billion passenger trips in 2020, a year-onyear decrease of 50.3 percent.