Passengers board train G2023 at Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Li An)

A majority of train tickets departing from Beijing and other major Chinese cities on January 19, two days before the Spring Festival, are sold out after being put on sale on Thursday, as Chinese people are to take on the road for the most important family reunion in a year. 

The Global Times learned that the tickets for multiple high-speed railways leaving Beijing were fully booked, including routes to cities such as Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, and Jinan. There are only a few tickets available for destinations including Nanjing, Wuhan and Hefei as of press time. 

And, train tickets departing from Shanghai and Shenzhen to destinations such as Nanjing and Guangzhou were also close to being sold out.

Railway tickets are generally available 15 days before departure, and Chinese domestic travelers are able to purchase tickets for January 21, the Chinese New Year's Eve and also the first day of the coming holiday, on Saturday. 

According to a forecast by online travel service Trip.com, flight booking during the upcoming Spring Festival increased by about 15 percent year-on-year, with bookings for more than 60 percent of domestic destinations surging, compared with the previous year. 

The travel rush for the 2023 Spring Festival will start on Saturday, lasting 40 days till February 15. 

The Ministry of Transport held a meeting on Wednesday chaired by Minister Li Xiaopeng, aiming to guide transport authorities across the nation to ensure smooth and safe travel during the coming long holidays. 

Li outlined six major tasks including guaranteeing logistics especially targeting the transportation of crucial materials including medication and coal, strengthen transport services, and enhance prevention and protection mechanism in response to possible risks. 

As this upcoming Spring Festival marks the first long holiday in China following the government's recent optimization of epidemic responses, both the travel market demand and the number of passengers will surge. 

The eastern Yangtze River Delta region is expected to transport 60 million passengers with a daily flow of 1.5 million people, a year-on-year increase of 20.3 percent, reaching 80 percent of 2019 level, cnstock.com reported on Wednesday. The passenger traffic for South China's Guandong Province is forecasted to hit 106 million, up 7.42 percent from a year ago, according to local media estimates.

Global Times