Chinese people will have eight consecutive days off during the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, to enjoy family meals, attend traditional performances and set off fireworks.
Train stations and airports across China have been packed for weeks as millions of people travel home for the Lunar New Year holiday. This year’s travel rush is expected to hit a record high.
Main streets, shopping malls, offices and homes in East and Southeast Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan (China), Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, are decorated in bright red.
"When the New Year comes, I think most people hope to become rich, have a smooth job and a happy family," said Yang Longhua, a director of a catering company in Beijing.
According to Xinhua, in the 40 days before, during and after the Lunar New Year holiday, there are expected to be about 9 billion inter-provincial trips by all forms of transportation in China. Train and air travel are expected to "reach record highs" during this year's Spring Festival travel rush. China's Ministry of Transport expects 510 million train trips and 90 million plane trips during the period.
In Shanghai, Ming Dong, 30, prayed for “good health and good work” as she attended the lantern festival at Yu Garden to welcome the Year of the Snake, which symbolizes wisdom and vitality in Chinese culture. “There is a Lunar New Year atmosphere here, so I came here to walk around and feel the atmosphere,” she said.
In South Korea, heavy snowfall disrupted train, plane and bus schedules nationwide as people visited family in rural areas this week.
At Seoul's main train station, passengers carry luggage and gifts wrapped in colorful cloth as they prepare to leave the capital.
Images released by local media showed snow-covered cars stuck on South Korea's main highways due to high winds and falling snow.
Transport authorities warned that it could take more than seven hours to drive from Seoul to the country's port city of Busan on January 28, the 29th day of Lunar New Year, while the usual journey only takes about four hours.
Many South Koreans are choosing to take vacations abroad. Incheon International Airport said more than 2.1 million passengers — an average of 214,000 passengers per day — are expected to use the airport to travel abroad from January 24 to February 2.
"This is expected to be the highest average daily passenger volume during the Lunar New Year holiday since the airport opened (in 2001)," the operator said.
The Lunar New Year atmosphere also extended to outer space, with Chinese astronauts Cai Xozhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze sending New Year's Eve greetings from the Tiangong space station.
In a video released by the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA), three Chinese astronauts hold up the two Chinese characters “Fu” to wish for good luck. “Happy New Year, may all your dreams come true,” astronaut Wang Haoze said.
