The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, or Chunyun in Chinese, the world's largest annual human migration, kicked off on February 2, 2026. The first originating passenger train departing from Beijing this year, Train K4069 bound for Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, left Beijing West Railway Station fully loaded with passengers heading home for the Chinese New Year, marking the official start of the 2026 travel rush in the Beijing region.

Beijing is expected to handle 19.947 million passenger trips, up by 392,000 from 2025, an increase of 2%. Photos: Li Hao and Cui Meng/GT