Chinese authorities have predicted there will be 9.5 billion trips during the forty-day travel period for the Spring Festival in 2026, a significant increase from the reported nine billion visits last year.
The most significant difference is the direction of travelers, with many parents choosing to travel to major cities to visit their working-age children, rather than the more traditional route of children returning to smaller cities or towns to visit their parents.
To optimize passenger loads, Chinese railways have also introduced discounts forcertain "reverse" route tickets on popular, less traveled routes to Shanghai or Nanjing, with some priced as low as 10-20% of face value.
Heavy cold and snowfall are expected in northern China during the early period of the holiday, with periodic low temperatures, freezing rain, and some snow expected in other parts of the northeast, central, and southwest of the country.
While Chinese state media has emphasized that fireworks can be set off during designated times, explicit prohibitions on citizens setting off fireworks are still being enforced by many local governments, driven partly by concerns of managing large gatherings and partly by the ongoing challenge of managing environmental pollution. （Related： TSMC Has No Interest in Being Taiwan's Silicon Shield, Former R&D Chief Warns ｜ Latest ）
