3 billion trips in 40 days as Chinese rush home
BEIJING: The world’s largest annual migration of people is going on in China this week as hundreds of millions take planes, trains and cars to travel home to mark the beginning of the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival.
The first day of Chinese New Year falls on January 28, but for many the aim is to reach home before the all-important pre-festival family dinner on January 27.
This year, according to state media, “2.98 billion trips are expected to be made.” The figure is up from last year.
India doesn’t have any similar mass migration tradition on a festival or holiday.
Bloomberg provided a comparison: “While some 49 million Americans undertake a significant journey for Thanksgiving, Chinese citizens will rack up 3 billion trips during this year’s travel-fest.”
The sheer number of people travelling puts massive pressure on China’s public transport systems as well as civic amenities along the routes.
“Every year, the stresses on the country’s transportation systems increase, despite improvements in infrastructure over the past few years,” state-run China Daily newspaper said in a report.
“To reduce crowds during the rush and to boost transport efficiency, China has been stepping up construction of high-speed railways, the total length of which exceeded 20,000 km this year, making it the world’s longest high-speed railway system,” the report said.
Advance booking for train tickets began in December.