Passenger booking ticket through a ticket vending machine at Shenyang Railway Station, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China, December 24, 2022. /CFP

Train tickets for China's upcoming Spring Festival travel rush went on sale on Saturday, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun in Chinese , is usually a period with high transportation demand as many people will travel to reunite with their families for the Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which falls on January 22 this year.

To improve the quality of railway transportation during the travel rush, China's railway authorities will step up efforts to coordinate COVID-19 prevention and control with transportation work.

With the optimization and adjustment of China's COVID-19 response, it is estimated that the number of passenger trips via the country's railway network will increase as people plan trips for family reunions and tourism, the railway operator said.

The Spring Festival travel rush will run from January 7 to February 15 in 2023.