Every Chinese New Year’s Eve, Han Ru, the captain of a high-speed train crew on the Beijing-Shanghai route, decorates the carriages with spring couplets and lanterns bearing the character “Fu,” symbolizing good fortune. This tradition has become Han’s special way of sending New Year’s greetings to passengers.
The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush, known as “chunyun,” began on January 14 and will run until February 22. The holiday itself started on New Year’s Eve, January 28, and lasted for eight days, ending this past Tuesday.
Official reports indicate that there were 96.26 million railway trips and 18.24 million air journeys during the holiday period.
This year marks Han’s 11th Spring Festival travel season. She explains, “Normally, passenger numbers are lower in the early days of the holiday, but this year, trains have been fully booked almost every day. For example, on the third day of the Chinese New Year, our high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai carried over 2,000 passengers in a single trip. Most of these passengers were families visiting relatives or traveling for leisure. On normal days, this train typically carries around 1,400 passengers, mostly business travelers.”
