Passengers are seen at Shenzhen North Station yesterday, the first day of China's 40-day Spring Festival travel rush.
Train G834, heading for Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in Northwest China, departed from Shenzhen North Station at 6:08 a.m. yesterday, marking the start of the city's 40-day Spring Festival travel season.
To meet demand during this busy travel season, Shenzhen's railway system will operate over 1,000 passenger trains per day and Shenzhen North Station will operate 400 night trains before the festival begins.
"Today, Shenzhen's railway terminals will send out around 260,000 passengers, including 175,000 departing from Shenzhen North Station," said Liu Zhenwen, chief of the station's passenger transportation department, during an interview.
Shenzhen North Station expects to handle 17.6 million passenger trips during the Spring Festival travel season, with a daily average of 440,000, marking a year-on-year increase of 6.6%.
Peak travel is expected between Jan. 25 and 27, one day ahead of this year's Spring Festival holiday.
Shenzhen Airlines will arrange 30,000 flights during the season. It will add flights on routes to Northeast China, Southwest China, and Hainan Province, popular destinations for holiday travel.
China Southern Airlines will add flights on 18 routes, primarily to tourism destinations in Northeast China, Yunnan Province, and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
To meet outbound travel demand, China Southern Airlines began adding flights from Shenzhen to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Monday and plans to resume flights from Shenzhen to Tokyo after Feb. 10, with three flights per week. After the resumption of the Shenzhen-Tokyo route, China Southern Airlines will operate 15 international and regional routes from Shenzhen to cities worldwide, including those in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America.
Shenzhen Oceanus Group plans to intensify ferry services between Shenzhen's Shekou terminal and Hong Kong's airport from Jan. 21 to Feb. 4.
Nationally, about 10.3 million train trips were expected to be made yesterday, as China ushered in its largest annual population migration, 15 days ahead of Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year.
This is the first chunyun, or Spring Festival travel rush, since UNESCO inscribed Spring Festival on its intangible cultural heritage list in December.
Nationally, 9 billion passenger trips are expected over the next 40 days, until Feb. 22, with both rail and air passenger trips set to hit record highs.