China’s annual Spring Festival travel rush, a 40-day period commonly referred to as the world’s largest annual human migration, kicked off on Monday ahead of an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
This year’s Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, falls on February 17 and will be accompanied by an extra-long nine-day public holiday in China, running from February 15 to 23.
It’s hoped a longer holiday (last year’s break was eight days long) might prompt Chinese consumers to boost consumption by spending more on travel, meals and more this festival period.
China expects a record 9.50 billion passenger trips to be made during the 40-day spring festival holiday travel period, higher than the 9.02 billion domestic trips last year, a state planning official said on Thursday.
Here are some glimpses of Lunar New Year celebrations across China.
