A record 2.3 billion passenger trips will be taken in China during the upcoming Lunar New Year period, the country's most important holiday, Chinese media said on Thursday.
A record 188 million people will take to the nation's rail system, 2 billion road trips will be taken and 24 million will take holiday-related flights in January and February, the China Daily said, in what is the world's biggest annual migration.
Earlier this year, the chaos was compounded dramaticallyby freak winter ice storms that spread misery across a huge swathe of the country just as the migration was getting under way.
Citing the government's main economic planning agency, the China Daily said 2009 could see more chaos as this Chinese New Year follows closely after the Western New Year on January 1.
Many college students and other people typically travel just before or after the Western New Year and the upcoming holidays could see both migrations swamping the transport system at the same time, it said.
12月9日,人民网发起了一项在线调查,题目是“2009年春运高峰即将到来,你最关心的是什么?”
People’s Daily Online launched an online survey titled “What problem are you most concerned about for the upcoming 2009 Spring Festival railway transport peak season?” on December 9.
By 8:00 pm that day, a total of 17,496 netizens had participated in the survey, and 14,403 of them chose “buying train tickets is difficult, it is almost impossible to get one,” accounting for 82.3% of the total number of participants.
国家发改委也告诫地方政府要采取措施,处理好即将到来的交通拥堵,尤其是在沿海制造业集中的地区。
The National Development and Reform Commission also warned local governments to take steps to handle the expected crush, particularly in coastal manufacturing regions.
据《中国日报》报道,春节期间的天气预报显示,全国大部分地区气温正常,但局部地区会遭遇暴风雪。
According to the China Daily, the weather forecast during the Spring Festival is that most of the country will experience normal temperatures for that time of year, but heavy snows were expected in some regions.