STORY: China's Spring Festival travel rush begins with record 9 billion trips expected
SHOOTING TIME: January 2025
DATELINE: Jan. 14, 2025
LENGTH: 0:01:57
LOCATION: Beijing
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of China's Spring Festival travel rush
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): WANG YUXIANG, Passenger
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): HUANG LIRONG, Passenger
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): WANG BINGJIE, Passenger
5. SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): JIANG SHAOFENG, Staff member at Nanjing Railway Station
6. SOUNDBITE 5 (Chinese): ZHANG DONGHAO, High-speed train mechanic in Wuhan

STORYLINE:

China ushered in its largest annual population migration on Tuesday, 15 days ahead of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year.

This marks the first "chunyun," or the Spring Festival travel rush, after UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival on the intangible cultural heritage list in December last year.

Nine billion passenger trips are expected during this year's travel rush period that ends on Feb. 22, with both rail and air passenger trips set to hit record highs.

During this travel season, 7.2 billion road trips and over 90 million civil aviation trips will be made. Over 510 million passenger trips will also be handled by the country's railways, with an average of 12.75 million trips daily, an increase of 5.5 percent over the previous year.

In China, the 40-day travel surge will see hundreds of millions of people return to their hometowns for family reunions.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): WANG YUXIANG, Passenger
"I always look forward to this time of year because I can go home and reunite with my family to celebrate a happy and fulfilling Spring Festival."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): HUANG LIRONG, Passenger
"I only go home once a year at this time, and I miss my parents a lot. I hope I can go home sooner to spend a joyful reunion with them."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): WANG BINGJIE, Passenger
"I'm on my way back to spend the Spring Festival with my parents. Every year at this time, I really hope I can get back sooner."

To ensure safe and orderly travel while maintaining stable operations, relevant departments have proactively increased capacity and introduced passenger-friendly measures.

SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): JIANG SHAOFENG, Staff member at Nanjing Railway Station
"Nanjing Railway Station has made thorough preparations for this year's Spring Festival travel rush, with detailed arrangements in both personnel and facilities. We are committed to ensuring the safety of passengers and trains."

SOUNDBITE 5 (Chinese): ZHANG DONGHAO, High-speed train mechanic in Wuhan
"With the deployment of inspection robots, combined with some intelligent detection equipment, a team of three mechanics can complete the inspection of a high-speed train in just 1.5 hours. This, together with manual inspections, ensures the operational safety of high-speed trains."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beijing.
(XHTV)