Spring Festival travel rush begins amid COVID response shift

10-01-23

China's Spring Festival travel rush, the largest annual human migration worldwide, kicked off Saturday after the world's most populous country adjusted its COVID-19 response.

Hundreds of millions of people are swarming train stations, airports, and coach terminals across the country for family reunions on the Lunar New Year's eve, which falls on Jan 21.

In the past two years, most Chinese people stayed put amid virus curbs during the festival, but a stark change has begun to emerge.

According to an official press conference, the number of passenger trips during this year's Spring Festival travel rush is expected to surge 99.5 percent from the same period last year to reach nearly 2.1 billion.