Lunar New Year Rail Traffic Surges Near Pre-Pandemic Levels

China’s railway passenger traffic rebounded to about 90% of the pre-pandemic level of 2019 in the middle of this year’s 40-day chunyun period, official data showed, reflecting how the unwinding of “zero Covid” helped restore travel demand during the world’s largest annual human migration.

During the period between Jan. 22 and Feb. 1, some 102 million passenger trips were made on the country’s railways. Travel peaked following Lunar New Year holiday in the seven days through Feb. 1, during which railway passenger traffic exceeded 10 million people daily, according to data from the National Railway Administration (NRA).