China’s train ticket booking platform, 12306, has sold 214 million tickets for the Spring Festival travel rush as of 9 am on Monday, according to the country’s railway operator.
On Monday, the seventh day of the travel rush, China State Railway Group Co Ltd. forecasted 13.45 million railway trips nationwide. To meet the surge in demand, the company plans to operate an additional 862 trains.
The Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun, is the world’s largest annual human migration, marking the beginning of the new year in the Chinese lunar calendar. This year’s chunyun started on January 14 and will run until February 22.
This year also holds special significance as it is the first Spring Festival since UNESCO added the holiday to its intangible cultural heritage list in December.
