CHINA: China's Spring Festival Travel Season Begins

China's Spring Festival travel season, which brings about the largest domestic tourism movement in the world, has begun. Nearly 2.9 billion Chinese people are expected to travel within the country during the 40-day season, known as the Chunyun period, which will last from Jan. 24 to March 3.

It is estimated that the number of Chinese people who travel domestically within this period will increase 3.6 percent compared to the same period last year. China will enter "Year of the Monkey" on Feb. 8 in accordance with the Animal Calendar.

Chinese Railway Ministry estimates that 7 million individuals will travel by train on the first day of the Chunyun. It is expected that the number of people travelling by train will soar by 12.7 percent compared to the same period last year, and a total of 332 million people will use railway transportation throughout the travel season.

China Central Television (CCTV) reported that "seatless train tickets" were sold to least 50 million people who will travel standing on trains because of overcrowding. Meanwhile, it is said that 248 million individuals will travel by land, and 4.28 million and 54.5 million others will travel by sea and air, respectively.

China's holiday tradition, which requires all family members to enter the new year together, leads to the largest domestic tourism movement in the world.

As the spring festival creates great excitement around the world's most populous country, hundreds of millions of people, who come to city centers to work, are going back to their villages and towns to see their families that they leave behind. Migrant workers who come from rural areas to cities need to change various transportation vehicles many times to reach their houses in distant parts of the country, causing overcrowding in airports and train stations.