How China's Lunar New Year travel rush is world's biggest annual migration

Hundreds of millions of Chinese criss-cross the country during the Lunar New Year holidays each year to reunite with families back in their hometowns or for sight-seeing during an extended festive period, making it the world's largest annual human migration. The Lunar New Year travel rush, known as Chunyun in Chinese, is often seen as a barometer for China's economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system. This year's Lunar New Year travel rush kicked off on Tuesday and will last for 40 days, concluding on Feb. 22. The official Spring Festival holidays, as the new year celebrations are known in China, will run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4. How many trips are expected? Officials are expecting a record 9b domestic trips during the 40-day period, an increase from the around 8.4b trips logged last year. Road trips, expected to reach 7.2b journeys this year, are projected to account for about 80% of all trips, followed by train and air travel. Rail travel is set to hit a record 510m trips, a 5.5% year-on-year increase, while air travel is expected to exceed 90m trips.<br/>