2012 Spring Festival Travel Rush begins

The Spring Festival Travel Rush is considered to be the world’s largest annual migration. The travel peak is expected to put the country’s transportation system through a harsh test.

The world’s largest annual migration is on its way - As China’s spring festival approaches, hundreds of millions of people working or studying outside their hometowns are hurrying to reunite with their families.

Travelers said, “I work in Beijing, I’m going home for spring festival.”

“I go to university in Beijing; I’m going back to Shazhou to spend the holiday with my family.”

It all starts Sunday, 15 days ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year, and is the rush is expected to last 40 days, until Feb 16th.

The nation’s transportation system is expecting nearly 3.2 billion passenger trips for this year’s Spring Festival rush, just over a 9 percent increase from last year. Given that China’s population is around 1.3 billion, it means nearly everyone in the country is moving somewhere twice.

It’s estimated that around 2.8 billion passengers will travel by bus which accounts for roughly 90% of the total passenger trips.

Officials from Ministry of Transport said the country’s bus system is prepared for the masses.

He Jianzhong, spokesman of Ministry of Transport, said, “We are expecting over 2.8 billion passenger trips on road alone for 2012’s spring festival rush, a 9.5% increase year on year. To cope with the rising demands, 840-thousand buses are being put into service in total, which offers over 2.6 million daily departures."

One of Beijing’s biggest transportation hubs, Liuliqiao Long Distance Bus Station, is already experiencing heavy loads of travellers ahead of time.

Tian Fan, head of Liuliqiao Long-distance Bus Station, said, “10, 000 passengers will depart from the station on Sunday alone, and we are expecting over 20, 000 passengers per day when it comes close to Lunar New Year’s Eve.”

With 15 days to go before the big countdown to Lunar New Year, the main hope is that everyone gets home safely.