Over 200m train tickets sold for 2025 Spring Festival travel rush

BEIJING -- China's train ticket booking platform 12306 had sold 214 million tickets for the Spring Festival travel rush as of 9 am Monday, according to the country's railway operator.

On Monday, the seventh day of the travel rush period, an estimated 13.45 million railway trips are expected nationwide, according to China State Railway Group Co Ltd. An additional 862 trains will be put into operation to accommodate the growing demand, said the company.

The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, which marks the start of a new year in the Chinese lunar calendar, is known as the largest human migration on the planet. This year's chunyun started on Jan 14 and will end on Feb 22.

This year's travel rush also represents China's first chunyun after UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival on its intangible cultural heritage list in December last year.