Biggest internal migration in the world gets underway CHINESE NEW YEAR
BEIJING: Chinese travellers are expected to make nearly 3 billion trips, including 73 million journeys by air, during the 40-day Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year (CNY), travel rush from Monday, marking the biggest internal migration of people in the world.
The Year of the Pig in the Chinese lunar calendar begins February 5.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens will be on the move, mostly to travel back to their hometowns to spend the new year with family.
Big cities like Beijing and Shanghai will empty out as migrant workers return home and government offices and
affiliated institutions will shut down for more than a week beginning first week of February.
The National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC), the country’s top planning body, shared some more mind-boggling numbers: “The number of road trips is projected to reach some 2.46 billion, a 0.8%
drop from last year, while train trips are likely to top 413 million during the period, up 8.3% year-on-year”.
“About 2.99 billion trips are expected to be made during the 2019 Spring Festival travel rush between Monday and March 1, with rail and air travel gaining significantly,” NDRC officials said.
“Air travel will likely see some 73 million trips, surging 12%, while boat trips are predicted to hit 43 million, about the same as last year,” officials added.
“In addition to the normal 15,600 flights a day, the Civil Aviation Administration of China plans to schedule 35,000 more flights during the travel rush,” Dong Zhiyi, deputy head of the administration told state media.
There is no event that parallels this kind of travel rush in the world; in terms of numbers, the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, where 120 million are expected to gather in the coming weeks, possibly comes close.
A large number of Chinese will also go abroad during the holidays. “Over 400 million Chinese will travel during the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year; among them nearly 7 million will travel abroad,” official news agency Xinhua quoted Ctrip, a Shanghaibased online travel agency, as saying earlier this month. The Ctrip report said people from over 100 Chinese cities had booked to travel to nearly 500 destinations across over 90 countries and regions. It’s also about the revenue – massive revenues – that the holiday generates.
Last year, the commerce ministry said retail and catering sectors posted sales of 926 billion yuan ($146 billion) during the holiday period, an increase of 10.2% from the year-ago holiday.