Chunyun
period of travel in China with extremely high traffic load around the Chinese New Year
Chunyun (traditional Chinese: 春運; simplified Chinese: 春运; pinyin: Chūnyùn; literally translated as “Spring transportation”), also referred to as the Spring Festival travel rush or the Chunyun period, is a period of travel in China with extremely high traffic load around the time of the Chinese New Year. The travel season in China usually begins 15 days before New Year's Day and lasts for around 40 days. In early February 2026, the Chunyun period of 2026 was predicted to record 539 million passenger trips in the 40 day period. It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world. Rail transport experiences the biggest challenge during the period, and several problems have emerged. This phenomenon is also seen in parts of Asia such as Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.
Origin
Three main factors are responsible for the heightened traffic load during the Chunyun season.
First, reuniting with their families during Chinese New Year is a long-held tradition for most Chinese people. People return home from work or study to have reunion dinner with their families on New Year's Eve. Since the reform and opening up of the late 1970s, new economic opportunities have emerged, often at a considerable distance from people's hometowns.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chunyun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.