In the 40 days of "Chunyun" there were 2.81 billion trips by train, plane, ship, road
The number of trips within China in the 40 days of the Spring Festival (the "Chunyun") this year has set a new record with an increase of 3.5% over last year. In total, 2.81 billion tickets were sold for journeys by rail Chinese, airline flights, travel on the roads by car or bus, or by waterways.
BEIJING, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese railways, roads, airlines and waterways carried a total of 2.81 billion passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, known as "chunyun," which concluded on Sunday. The figure is 3.5 percent up on last year, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on Monday. A total of 2.42 billion passengers traveled by road while 295 million chose to travel by rail. Passengers on waterways reached 42.84 million. Online ticketing and internet network coverage of trains have improved services.
Han Shuqing, deputy chief of China Railway's department of planning and statistics, said that high-speed trains have became a major force. High-speed train passengers accounted for 41.4 percent of rail passengers this year, according to the MOT. High-speed services alleviated pressure at peak times, said Song Jianguo, deputy Party secretary of
Beijing West Railway Station. The
Beijing Public Transport authorities added over 200 buses to the capital city's railway and bus stations as well as
Beijing Capital International Airport.
Airlines carried nearly 49.2 million passengers, up 11.7 percent, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Monday. Airlines operated 360,000 flights during the period, up 9.3 percent. With a combined average of 1.91 million seats available each day, the airlines comfortably met demand. On both Feb. 23 and Feb. 24, the airlines carried more than 1.35 million passengers, an all-time daily high, according to the CAAC.
The megacities of Beijing, Shanghai,
GuangZhou and
Shenzhen saw the most passenger departures during the first half of chunyun as people returned to their hometowns. In contrast, airports in the southwest and northeast were busiest towards the end of the 40-day period as tens of millions returned to work or school. The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 19 this year, is traditionally a time for family reunions, but tourist cities like Haikou, Sanya,
Kunming and
Lijiang continued to be hot destinations. The Spring Festival holiday usually lasts seven days for office workers and a month for students.
Airline passengers surge 11.7 pct during chunyun
BEIJING, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese airlines carried almost 49.2 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel period, known as "chunyun", which concluded on Sunday. This is an 11.7-percent rise over the corresponding period last year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Monday. Airlines operated 360,000 flights during the period, up 9.3 percent. Each airline carried 1.23 million passengers on average, said the CAAC. With a combined average of 1.91 million seats available each day, the airlines met demand quite comfortably.
The megacities of Beijing, Shanghai,
GuangZhou and
Shenzhen saw the most passenger departures during the first half of chunyun as people left their place of work or study to return to their hometowns. In contrast, airports in the southwest and northeast of China were busiest towards the end of the 40-day period as tens of millions of Chinese returned to work or schools after spending time with family.
On both Feb. 23 and Feb. 24, the airlines carried more than 1.35 million passengers, an all-time daily high, according to the CAAC. The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 19 this year, is traditionally a time for family reunions. The Spring Festival holiday usually lasts seven days for office workers and a month for students. Chunyun has been called the world's largest human migration.
