China braces for 2.9 billion trips during Lunar New Year

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese are packing train and bus stations as the peak travel season kicks into high gear this weekend with hundreds of millions of people going home for Spring Festival celebrations — or head for vacation destinations.

Chinese travelers are expected to make 2.9 billion trips during the 40-day period between Jan. 21 and March 3, with the majority of those trips falling in the weeks around the Feb. 8 Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Transport said.

“I have my parents back in my hometown and I must go back and have the family reunion,” said Ma Xijie, a migrant worker from Sichuan province who was travelling back home by train with his son and wife.

“It’s great to have the whole family sit down and enjoy a family dinner together. I have been working far from home with my kid for a whole year,” he said.

At the Beijing railway station, student Ren Chongyuan from Shandong province said it was a bit easier to buy tickets this year, but he still had to book two months in advance.

This year’s travel crush — considered the largest annual human migration — may be relatively less severe due to a lackluster economy.

In coastal Zhejiang province near Shanghai, officials expect a 4.4 percent drop in passenger traffic as jobs dry up and migrant laborers pack up early to head to their family homes in China’s hinterlands well before the New Year.