(CNN) – Want to go to China to usher in the year of the pig? Get ready, because things are about to go wild.
The annual rush of the country’s Spring Festival, the largest human migration on the planet, is now officially underway and will be bigger than ever, and nearly 3 billion trips are expected between January 21 and January ‘March 1st.
Called “Chunyun,” it is the 40-day period in which the Chinese go home to celebrate the Lunar New Year Spring Festival with their families.
This year, the Lunar New Year falls on February 5th.
China’s Ministry of Transportation recently held a press conference to outline some of the impressive statistics behind this year’s LNY rush.
According to Lian Weiliang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, 2,999 million trips will be made during the Chunyun period, 0.6% more than in 2018.
Of these, 2.46 billion trips will be made by car, 413 million by rail (8.3% more) and 73 million by plane.
In any other nation, many travelers would slow down local infrastructure.
But China is different from any other nation and is well equipped to handle the masses.
High-tech ticket sales, Increase in flights
A 5G robot serves free water bottles at Hangzhou East Railway Station in Zhejiang Province in eastern China on the first day of the 2020 Spring Festival travel race.
STR / AFP / AFP / Getty Images
Meanwhile, Lian told the media that 4,787 pairs of train services will operate before the lunar New Year holidays and 4,860 after. Of these, 3,353 (before) and 3,383 (after) are high-speed trains.
New technologies have also been incorporated to facilitate congestion at train stations, including facial recognition programs and ticketless travel.
To accommodate air travelers, there will be 532,000 flights to the sky, 10% more than last year. The country’s top ten airports, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Kunming, will operate 24 hours a day.
The country’s highways are also prepared to deal with the inevitable chaos of traffic.
Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of transportation, told the media that China now has 4.86 million kilometers of road by the end of 2018, where electric car drivers will find 7,400 charging stations.
But of course, not everyone wants to stay there and deal with traffic jams.
According to Chinese online ticketing giant Ctrip, an estimated 7 million people are scheduled to travel internationally during the Chunyun period to more than 90 countries.