China is likely to see 280 million railway passenger trips during the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, a sharp increase of 28.5 percent from the holiday season a year earlier, official data showed Thursday.
The 2022 railway passenger trip volume would account for 69 percent of the corresponding period of 2019, data from a teleconference showed.
Passengers are expected to make 35 million air trips during next year's Spring Festival travel rush, almost unchanged from the 2020 and 2021 levels.
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more Chinese people prefer to travel by driving. Currently, China's highway traffic volume has significantly surpassed the pre-pandemic level and is estimated to remain high during the upcoming travel rush, the data showed.
The Spring Festival travel rush, lasting from Jan. 17 to Feb. 25 next year, is usually the busiest annual travel season in the country.
During the 40-day travel season, also known as Chunyun, many Chinese people will travel to reunite with their families for the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which will fall on Feb. 1, 2022.
