China's peak travel season for the 2026 Lunar New Year has passed halfway through, with 5.08 billion inter-regional passengers in the first 20 days, the Chinese Ministry of Transport said. On average, there are about 250 million people traveling nationwide every day.
In this total, road transport accounted for 4.76 billion trips. Railways served 258 million passenger trips. Waterway transport recorded 19.99 million trips, while civil aviation reached 47.52 million trips.
This is a large-scale annual migration, also known as Chunyun, and is often considered the largest migration in the world, lasting 40 days from February 2nd to March 13th, 2026. Authorities forecast that the entire period could reach about 9.5 billion inter-regional passengers, a record high ever.
This year, the volume of private vehicles continues to increase sharply, especially on highways connecting major economic centers such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Many major railway stations recorded crowded conditions during peak days before and after the Tet holiday.
To meet the soaring demand, the Chinese transport sector increased train trips, supplemented means of transport and implemented traffic flow regulation measures at key traffic junctions.
Functional forces also strengthen traffic safety control, ensuring smooth operation in complex winter weather conditions in many areas of northern China.
With a scale of billions of trips in a short time, Chunyun continues to reflect purchasing power, the need for family reunions and the economic recovery momentum of China after the pandemic.
