A boy moves his suitcase at Nanjing Railway Station in Jiangsu province on Feb 2. (Su Yang/Xinhua)
The 2026 Spring Festival travel season, which began on Feb 2, has brought the expected surge in cross-regional travel. According to data released by the Special Task Force for Comprehensive Transportation during Spring Festival, the first day of this year's travel season saw an estimated 187.91 million people on the move, marking a 13 percent increase compared to the first day of the rush last year.
Breaking down the numbers, highway travel remains the most popular mode of transportation, with an estimated 173.12 million people traveling by road, a 13 percent rise from the previous year. Notably, non-commercial small passenger vehicles on highways and national or provincial roads accounted for nearly 143.08 million trips, representing a 13.5 percent increase. Commercial road passenger transport also saw a rise, with 30.04 million people traveling, up by 10.3 percent from 2025.
A passenger tries to pass through a turnstile access control at Hangzhou Railway Station in Zhejiang province on Feb 2. (WANG GANG/CHINA NEWS SERVICE)
A robot interacts with a passenger on the "Xizi" train of the Hangzhou passenger transport department on Feb 1. (HUANG BO/FOR CHINA DAILY)
A puppet show is staged to entertain passengers in the waiting room of Quanzhou Railway Station on Feb 2. CHEN QITUO/FOR CHINA DAILY
