China's Spring Festival travel rush starts， 9 bln trips expected

China ushered in its largest annual population migration on Tuesday, 15 days ahead of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year.　

This marks the first "chunyun," or the Spring Festival travel rush, after UNESCO inscribed Spring Festival on the intangible cultural heritage list in December last year.　

Nine billion passenger trips are expected during this year's travel rush period that ends on Feb 22, with both rail and air passenger trips set to hit record highs.　

During this travel season, 7.2 billion road trips and over 90 million civil aviation trips will be made. Over 510 million passenger trips will also be handled by the country's railways, with an average of 12.75 million trips daily.　

In China, the 40-day travel surge will see hundreds of millions of people return to their hometowns for family reunions.　

(Reported by Wang Dongyu, Yang Yi, Wei Jiefu, Yin Liqin; Edited by Qi Yiling)