China’s Lunar New Year trips top 42 million on day 8 as post zero-Covid travel takes off
- Numbers up by 57 per cent from comparable day in 2022, with Ministry of Transport expecting more than 2 billion to travel over 40-day holiday season
- Analysts advise cautious optimism, as infection fears and pandemic-induced cost constraints weigh on travel and other economic activity
Saturday marked the eighth day of a 40-day Lunar New Year travel period called chun yun and known as the world’s largest annual people migration – when millions of Chinese travel back to their hometowns for family reunions.
This Lunar New Year holiday, which officially runs from January 21 to 27, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions.
A total of 42.27 million people travelled by rail, road, sea and air across the country on January 14, an increase of 57 per cent from the comparable day in 2022, the Ministry of Transport said.
This comes amid a sustained rebound in economic activity following China’s abrupt abandonment of its “zero-Covid” policy last month.
However, the number of trips was still nearly 46 per cent below that of the same period in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the data showed.
The ministry expects more than 2 billion people to travel this year over the 40-day holiday season, known in China as the Spring Festival. That would be almost twice the total for the last chun yun, though still just over 70 per cent of the 2019 figure.