The world’s biggest annual migration will enter its peak when websites start selling tickets for February 9th, on the eve of the Chinese New Year day.
This year’s travel rush is expected to last about 40 days, from January 26th to March 6th. During this period, an average of 5.6 million daily passenger trips are expected on China’s railways. The number could go up to 7 million during peak travel times.
Altogether, there will be about 225 million passengers traveling by train during this period. Take Guangdong province as an example. According to the local labor department, about 14 million migrant workers will return to their hometowns outside Guangdong province.
Official figures show that 7 million tickets out of a total 8.5 million have been sold in Guangdong for the period extending from January 5th to January 20th.