The start of what is known as the Spring Festival in China, a 40-day period coinciding with the turn of the year, has kicked off with travel levels unseen since 2020 and authorities expect the figure to soar to 2 billion in the meantime.
These trips coincide with the end of the ‘zero COVID’ policy, under which the government imposed heavy restrictions on mobility. As of this Sunday, travelers entering the Asian giant are no longer required to keep a quarantine.
The Ministry of Transport estimates that there were 34.7 million trips on Saturday alone, 39 percent more than on a similar day in 2022 and the highest daily figure since 2020, although it still represents 51 percent of what the first travel day of 2019 accounted for.
Across the festival, the government expects 2.1 billion trips, nearly double last year, according to Bloomberg. Even so, this statistic will also fall short of 2019, accounting for 70 percent of the value then.
This increase in mobility is also noticeable in traffic, to the point that in 15 major cities traffic jams grew by 116 percent compared to January 2021 levels, as shown by Baidu data also collected by Bloomberg.
However, there are still some data that have not recovered, such as subway ridership, which last week remained 24 percent lower than in the same period of 2021.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
