China’s annual 40-day Spring-Festival travel season—known locally as Chunyun—roared out of the station this weekend. According to China State Railway Group (China Railway), the 12306 online booking platform had issued 140 million tickets by 08:00 on Saturday, 7 February. Daily passenger volumes have exceeded 10 million for five consecutive days, and 12.845 million trips were recorded on Friday alone.
To keep pace, China Railway has scheduled 1,249 additional passenger trains for Saturday and is using real-time big-data analytics to redeploy rolling stock to the busiest corridors, including the Beijing–Shanghai and Guangzhou–Chengdu trunks. Officials said on-board Wi-Fi, mobile-office carriages and expanded luggage space on newer Fuxing bullet trains are designed to accommodate the growing share of business travellers who are working en route to holiday destinations or manufacturing hubs that remain open during the long break.
![China’s Railways Sell 140 Million Tickets in First Week of Spring-Festival Rush]()
For foreign employees or business visitors who still need travel documents sorted out before boarding, VisaHQ can simplify the process. Its intuitive portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) lets travellers review up-to-date entry requirements, submit paperwork online and track the status of Chinese visa applications in real time—saving valuable hours that can be better spent securing scarce train seats during the Chunyun rush.
This year’s Chunyun is expected to generate a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger journeys across all transport modes, with rail accounting for an estimated 540 million—approximately 5 percent more than in 2025. Corporations with China operations are advising expatriate assignees and visiting executives to avoid peak departure dates (14–16 February) and to build extra buffer time into supply-chain schedules, as freight capacity on mixed-use lines is being temporarily reduced to prioritise passenger demand.
For mobility managers, the sharp spike underscores the importance of staggered travel policies and flexible ticketing tools that can re-book staff onto less-crowded services at short notice. Travellers are also being reminded to register their itineraries on enterprise security platforms so that duty-of-care teams can track weather-related disruptions, which are common during northern China’s winter months.
To keep pace, China Railway has scheduled 1,249 additional passenger trains for Saturday and is using real-time big-data analytics to redeploy rolling stock to the busiest corridors, including the Beijing–Shanghai and Guangzhou–Chengdu trunks. Officials said on-board Wi-Fi, mobile-office carriages and expanded luggage space on newer Fuxing bullet trains are designed to accommodate the growing share of business travellers who are working en route to holiday destinations or manufacturing hubs that remain open during the long break.
For foreign employees or business visitors who still need travel documents sorted out before boarding, VisaHQ can simplify the process. Its intuitive portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) lets travellers review up-to-date entry requirements, submit paperwork online and track the status of Chinese visa applications in real time—saving valuable hours that can be better spent securing scarce train seats during the Chunyun rush.
This year’s Chunyun is expected to generate a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger journeys across all transport modes, with rail accounting for an estimated 540 million—approximately 5 percent more than in 2025. Corporations with China operations are advising expatriate assignees and visiting executives to avoid peak departure dates (14–16 February) and to build extra buffer time into supply-chain schedules, as freight capacity on mixed-use lines is being temporarily reduced to prioritise passenger demand.
For mobility managers, the sharp spike underscores the importance of staggered travel policies and flexible ticketing tools that can re-book staff onto less-crowded services at short notice. Travellers are also being reminded to register their itineraries on enterprise security platforms so that duty-of-care teams can track weather-related disruptions, which are common during northern China’s winter months.
