The 2025 Spring Festival Transport will start on January 14 and end on February 22, lasting 40 days. During this year’s Spring Festival travel period, the cross-regional flow of people across society is expected to reach 9 billion, and railway and civil aviation passenger volumes are expected to exceed 510 million and 90 million respectively, both reaching record highs.
China ushered in the first day of the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush on January 14. Nine billion passenger trips are expected during this year’s travel rush period that ends on February 22 — with both rail and air passenger trips set to hit record highs. More than 510 million passenger trips will be handled by the country’s railways, and over 90 million civil aviation trips are forecast to be made during this 40-day travel season.
Before the first passenger train K4159 of the Spring Festival travel rush in Beijing departs, a young passenger plays in the carriage with a sign saying “Go home for the New Year” (photo taken on January 13). This train from Beijing west to Hefei departed at 0:02 on January 14. (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
【Knowledge Points】
China’s Spring Festival travel season is known as “the largest population migration in human history.” Every year, hundreds of millions of people return to their hometowns near or far away to relive their long-lost nostalgia before heading off to pursue their dreams. 1954 was the first official Spring Festival Transport in history. In that year, the former Ministry of Railways established the Spring Festival Passenger Transport Office, and the concept of Spring Festival Transport was born. After the reform and opening up, the wave of migrant workers rose, and the Spring Festival Transport gradually became a social phenomenon. In March 1980, the term “Spring Festival Transport” appeared for the first time in the People’s Daily. Since then, pre-holiday transportation arrangements for the Spring Festival usually start on the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month every year. In recent years, the Spring Festival travel period has been stable at 40 days: centered on the Spring Festival day, 15 days before the festival and 25 days after the festival.
The 2025 Spring Festival Transport will start on January 14 and end on February 22, lasting 40 days. This is the first Spring Festival transportation after the Spring Festival was successfully applied for World Heritage, and it is also a Spring Festival transportation with an 8-day Spring Festival holiday. According to estimates from transportation and other departments, the number of cross-regional people movements in society will reach 9 billion, and the passenger volume of railways and civil aviation is expected to exceed 510 million and 90 million respectively, both reaching record highs. From the perspective of travel structure, self-driving travel will firmly occupy the dominant position, with an estimated number of 7.2 billion trips, accounting for approximately 80% of cross-regional human mobility in society. The peak daily traffic volume on highways may reach a record high.
【Congratulatory message】
Building a sustainable transportation system that is safe, convenient, efficient, green, economical, inclusive, and resilient is an important measure to support the high-quality development of the economy and society and realize the beautiful vision of “people enjoying their mobility and goods flowing smoothly.”
Building a sustainable transport system that is safe, convenient, efficient, green, economical, inclusive, and resilient is a major move to support high-quality economic and social development and realize the vision of enjoyable travel for passengers and smooth transport of goods.
——On September 25, 2023, Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter to the Global Sustainable Transportation Summit Forum
【Related vocabulary】
Unified and open transportation market
open and unified transportation market
passenger capacity
passenger transport capacity
China Daily English Dianjin Studio (This article was first published on the “Study Powerful Country” learning platform)
[Editor in charge: Chen Danni]
