About 3 billion trips are expected to take place during the Chinese New Year holiday return home, commonly known as `chun yun,` said Zhao Chenxin, deputy secretary general and spokesman of the National Development and Reform Commission.
China’s Ministry of Transport confirmed that it has implemented monitoring and disinfection measures in crowded passenger areas such as train stations to ensure safety for the Spring Festival, when the country’s media reported on a type of virus.
People returning home for the Tet holiday at a Beijing station today.
China’s railway authorities expect to serve 440 million passengers during the New Year holiday, an increase of 8% compared to last year.
With the construction of an additional 139,000 km of railways and 35,000 km of high-speed railways, many Chinese people have significantly shortened their travel time and are no longer afraid of time-consuming and inconvenient trips back home for Tet.
The fastest travel time from Zhangjiakou, a city in Hebei province, to Beijing 200 km away has been shortened from more than 3 hours to 47 minutes, after the launch of the Beijing intercity high-speed railway.
Starting this year, online ticketing for both high-speed and intercity rail is available and passengers no longer have to buy paper tickets before their trip.
High-speed train at Chengdu city station, Sichuan province on January 10.
More than 17,000 flights are expected to take place each day, an increase of 13.3% over the previous year, said Wan Xiangdong, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Although travel has become more convenient, Geoffrey Crothall, communications director for China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based labor rights group, said more and more migrant workers are working closer to home.
`The familiar image of migrant workers from small villages in Sichuan or Henan boarding a train in Guangzhou and traveling thousands of kilometers to their hometown in 1-2 days is no longer there,` Mr. Crothall said.
