East China’s Jiangsu province is bracing for the spring festival travel rush that will begin on January 21 and last until March 1st. The provincial department of transportation predicts that 609.2 million trips will be made in the province during the spring festival with obvious growth in railway and air travel and remarkable decline in highway travel.
Highway travel will constitute the bulk of the spring festival passenger flow as the province is expecting 349.7 million highway trips during the 40—day travel rush, a decline of 5.4% from a year ago.
227.48 million railway trips are expected to be made during the travel rush, surging by 3.4% year on year.
3.2 million passengers will take flights during the travel rush, up 8% year on year.
27000 people will choose to travel by waterways, climbing 12.5% from a year ago.
Self-drive tours will increase by 10% from a year ago, the transportation authority said.
The province's urban bus passenger traffic is expected to hit 770 million, indicating diversified passenger travel modes.
70% of the passengers will head home for the family reunion to be in line with the Chinese tradition of celebrating the lunar new year.
12% of the passengers will make travels to see their relatives and friends.
10% of the passengers will go for sightseeing tours, as is predicted by the transportation authority.
45% of the passengers will be young workers and employees varying in age from 22 to 32. College students aged between 18 and 22 will constitute the bulk of the passenger flow.
Passengers between 33 and 50 will choose family-based self-drive tours.
The largest destinations for highway travel will include Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong and Henan, making up 95% of all the destinations.
For inter-provincial travel, 600000 people are expected to travel between Nantong and Shanghai.
Suzhou, Xuzhou, Nantong, Nanjing and Wuxi will be the top five destinations of highway travel inside the province.
The first peak of the travel rush is expected to come between January 24 and January 27 as migrant workers and college students start to go home. Most of them will make train rides.
The second peak of the travel rush is expected to come between January 31 and February 3rd as corporate employees will start to head home for the family reunion.
The first post-holiday peak will come between February 22 and 24 as college students will get back to the school for the new semester.
