Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that China’s Covid prevention policies have been downgraded. Many people are having their first return home reunion in three years. On the 7th, the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, a total of 34.736 million passengers were transported by railways, roads and airways in China. This represents an increase of 38.9 percent over the same period in 2022. China’s Spring Festival travel is known to be the largest population movement on the surface of the Earth. The 2023 Spring Festival travel period is from January 7th to February 15th, a total of 40 days. Xu Chengguang, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transportation, said that the total passenger flow during the Spring Festival travel period this year is estimated to be about 2.095 billion, an increase of 99.5 percent over the same period last year, and returned to 70.3 percent of the same period in 2019. Among them, visiting relatives accounted for about 55 percent of the passenger flow, work accounted for about 24 percent, plus tourism and business travel accounted for about 10 percent respectively. However, this year’s Spring Festival travel peak is superimposed with the Covid peak, which made this Spring Festival travel the most uncertain and the most complicated one. The situation introduces the greatest difficulties and challenges in recent years. At this moment, it is hard to find train tickets, and many popular routes have been sold out. In addition, there is also an increase in demand for flights. According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, during the Spring Festival travel season, an average of 11,000 passenger flights will be arranged daily.
Source: CNA, January 8, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202301080129.aspx