Seasonal migration gets into full swing
Print Edition
CHINA’S largest seasonal travel rush got under way yesterday, with 2.8 billion trips expected to be made during the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday season.
Beginning 14 days before the Spring Festival holiday, the travel spree, or chunyun in Chinese, is considered the world’s largest human migration, with hundreds of millions of people traveling to be with their families.
The number of trips is set to grow 3.4 percent this year, according to official estimates.
China’s rail system is expected to handle 300 million trips, up 10 percent from last year, the National Development and Reform Commission said.
The growth is expected to be better managed, as the official ticketing website, 12306.cn, opened 60 days ahead of the festival, compared with just 20 days in advance in previous years.
Online sales have helped cut crowds at ticket booths, which are often overwhelmed during the holiday period, with some people waiting days to make a purchase.
Song Jianguo, a spokesman for Beijing West Railway Station, said the peak period is expected to be from February 13 to 18, when daily passenger numbers are likely to hit 230,000.
Bullet trains will arrive every four minutes and others every five minutes, he said.
But not all cities have experienced such growth. The daily chunyun passenger volume in Shanghai has been gradually falling, said Zhu Wenzhong, head of Shanghai Railway Station. It is expecting a smaller crowd than was recorded during the National Day holiday in October, he said.
The estimated 47.5 million airline passengers will pay less than normal, as airlines prepare to remove the fuel surcharge today.
In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have taken to the nation’s roads on motorcycles in order to return home to see their families.
But as more manufacturers move from coastal regions to inland provinces, fewer people are hitting the road.
The public security bureau in Wuzhou, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said 300,000 people will this year ride motorcycles from coastal regions back home, down from 400,000 in 2013.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
