The annual Spring Festival travel rush in China is called Chunyun.
The Chinese term Chunyun literally means “spring transportation.” It describes the intense surge in domestic travel surrounding the Lunar New Year, when people return to their hometowns for reunion gatherings and then travel back to cities for work or study. The period commonly lasts about 40 days, beginning roughly 15 days before the holiday.
Chunyun became especially dramatic after China’s economic reforms, as large numbers of workers moved from rural areas to industrial and coastal cities. University students studying far from home and holiday tourists add further pressure. Railways carry a particularly large share of travelers, while highways, buses and airports also experience exceptional demand.
The term is sometimes confused with Spring Festival itself, but they are not identical: Spring Festival is the holiday, while Chunyun is the associated travel season. It is also often described as the world’s largest annual human migration, although the exact passenger totals vary by year and by how journeys are counted.