Train tickets for China's upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, or chunyun, went on sale on Dec 31. This year, the travel rush will last from Jan 7 to Feb 15, with a total of nearly 2.1 billion passenger trips expected to be made during this period. China's transportation sector is aiming to improve service quality during the rush to make passengers' trips easier while also following epidemic control protocols. Let's take a look.

Expansion of railway network

A total of 6,077 pairs of passenger trains are scheduled to operate before Spring Festival. After the holiday, 6,107 pairs of passenger trains will be arranged. The maximum capacity is up 11 percent from the level in 2019 before the epidemic.

To meet the diverse needs of passengers, more red-eye bullet trains will be put into service on some lines with tight capacity. Overnight sleeper train services will also be added to Beijing-Guangzhou and Hangzhou-Shenzhen high-speed routes.