As the New Year holiday is drawing near, more and more people in China are choosing to celebrate the arrival of 2026 with travel. According to umetrip, a Chinese travel-related mobile service provider, the flight booking reservations from major cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai to popular destinations including southern cities like Sanya, Haikou, Kunming, Guangzhou, and northern areas like Changbai Mountain and Harbin have increased significantly on a month-on-month basis for the New Year holiday. As of Thursday, more than 2.71 million tickets have been booked in domestic routes, about 35 percent higher than that of last year, the data shows. Travel bookings for January 2026 show that ice-and-snow trips and warm-weather getaways remain the dominant themes, with their popularity expected to continue through the Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese New Year, which falls in February 2026. Shotlist: Beijing, China - Recent: 1. Various of people at airport terminal; 2. Various of passengers at check-in counter, queuing; 3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yu Haiyan, deputy manager, revenue management office, sales department, China Southern Airlines: "Flights from Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Chengdu to Sanya; from Shanghai and Chengdu to Beihai; from Guangzhou and Shanghai to Changbai Mountains; and from Beijing to Kunming have all recorded seat occupancy rates exceeding 70 percent prior to the New Year holiday."; FILE: Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China - 2024 4. Aerial shots of Saint Sophia Cathedral; 5. Aerial shots of snowman sculptures; 6. Various of tourists taking photos; Beijing, China - Recen 7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Shi Ke, researcher, Qunar Big Data Research Institute: "Air ticket bookings to Harbin, Shenyang, and Yanbian have increased by 18 percent, 36 percent, and 52 percent, respectively, while those for flights to Haikou and Sanya rose by 19 percent and 51 percent, respectively."; Sanya City, Hainan Province, south China - Recent 8. Various of tourists on beach; 9. Tourists on inflatable boat; 10. Various of tourists enjoying scuba diving. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]