China’s 2026 Spring Festival travel rush begins, the 1st train from Beijing rolls out amid festive cheer and family reunion expectations
2026-02-02 09:27:48 source：Global Times
February 2, 2026
China's annual Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun, officially started on Monday, and a record 9.5 billion passenger trips are estimated for the 40-day period of festivities from February 2 to March 13.
China's national railway network is expected to handle 540 million passenger trips during the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, averaging 13.48 million trips per day, up 5.0 percent year on year, according to China State Railway Group Co.
At 12:40 am on Monday, the K4069 train departed smoothly from Beijing West Railway Station to Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi Province, marking the official launch of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush for China Railway Beijing Group. On the first day, Beijing West Station is expected to handle about 145,000 passenger trips, with total passenger volume projected to reach 5.155 million over the entire travel period.
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