BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- China recorded more than 1.4 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the first week of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, transport authorities said on Monday.

Li Qiwei works at an electric multiple unit (EMU) maintenance depot in north China's Tianjin Municipality, on Feb. 1, 2026. Several EMU trains are neatly lined up for "health checkups" inside a maintenance depot in Tianjin at the night of Feb. 1, right before the start of Spring Festival travel rush, the annual homeward journey in China, and also the world's largest human migration. (Photo: Xinhua)

From Feb. 2 to 8, road travel exceeded 1.3 billion trips, while railways handled more than 86 million passenger trips. Waterway passenger trips topped 4.9 million, and civil aviation passenger trips exceeded 16 million, according to the Ministry of Transport.

On Sunday, the seventh day of the travel rush, inter-regional passenger trips totaled 227.71 million -- up 2.3 percent from the same period last year.

The Spring Festival, which is also known as Chinese New Year, falls on Feb. 17 this year, and the official holiday lasts nine days. The annual travel rush, "chunyun," is often described as the world's largest human migration. It is expected to see a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the 40-day period from Feb. 2 to March 13 this year.