The railway department of Guizhou province was ready to receive a record number of passengers as the 2018 Spring Festival travel rush, also known as Chunyun, began on Feb 1 in China.

The Spring Festival travel rush puts the Chinese transport system under a lot of pressure because migrant workers and university students need to go back to their hometowns to gather with their family for Chinese New Year. It often starts 15 days ahead of Spring Festival and lasts for about 40 days.

The Spring Festival travel rush begins on Feb 1 this year. [photo/gog.cn]

With the Chongqing – Guiyang High-speed Railway opening to the public in January, the traffic in Southwest China's Guizhou province will be even more intense during this year's travel rush.

China Raiway Chengdu Group Co Ltd (CR Chengdu), a subsidiary of China railway Co Ltd, is expected to handle 36.5 million passengers this year, an increase of four million people at a year-on-year expansion rate of 40 percent. Guizhou will handle seven million passengers, 700,000 more than in the same period last year.

Trains take passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush. [photo/gog.cn]

To improve traffic capacity and ease the traffic burden, Guizhou will increase the number of round-trip trains to 244.5 before the Spring Festival and to 243.5 after the holiday.

Aviation authorities plan to adjust flight schedules to better meet the needs of people during the Spring Festival. They will add several flights to popular scenic resorts in Japan and South Korea.