BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's 2026 Spring Festival travel rush had passed its halfway point as of Saturday, with inter-regional passenger trips reaching 5.08 billion in the first 20 days, the Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

Passengers are pictured at the Jiaxing South Railway Station in Jiaxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 15, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)

Of this total, road trips accounted for 4.76 billion, while railways handled 258 million trips. Waterways and civil aviation recorded 19.99 million and 47.52 million passenger trips, respectively.

The annual travel surge, known as chunyun and often described as the world's largest human migration, is expected to generate a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger trips during the 40-day period running from Feb. 2 to March 13 this year, according to previous estimates.