China sees return travel rush as Near Year holiday comes to end

China’s transportation network is bracing for a nationwide surge in return traffic on Saturday, the last day of the New Year holiday.

The total number of cross-regional passenger trips across the country on Friday was expected to exceed 180 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 13.4 percent, according to data from the Ministry of Transport.

The national railways handled more than 12.21 million passenger trips on Friday, the third day of the holiday travel rush running from Dec 31, 2025 to Jan 4, 2026.

As travelers begin to return from holiday destinations, the railway system is estimated to welcome 17.45 million passenger trips on Saturday, according to China State Railway Group.

Railway authorities have scheduled 1,343 additional pairs of passenger trains across the country to accommodate the increased travel demand.

Meanwhile, it was estimated that China’s civil aviation sector handled 1.85 million passenger trips on Friday.

Notably, south China’s Hainan Province has witnessed a peak in entry and exit across airport ports during the New Year holiday, the first public holiday after the province officially launched island-wide special customs operations on Dec 18 last year. The total number of cross-border passenger trips during the holiday is expected to reach 33,500.

Road traffic in China is equally busy, primarily consisting of short and medium-distance self-driving trips, including visits to relatives and friends as well as short-distance travels.

The national road network recorded more than 170 million trips on Friday, a year-on-year increase of 13 percent, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry’s Highway Monitoring and Response Center said that Friday logged a traffic volume of 32.6 million vehicles, an 11 percent year-on-year increase.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had carried out multiple strikes on Ukrainian targets with high-precision weapons over the past week, while Ukraine on the same day reported repelling attacks from Russian forces.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, over the past week, Russian forces conducted strikes on Ukraine’s defense, energy and transport infrastructure, and controlled nine settlements in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv directions.

On Friday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that 98 battles occurred in the front-line areas over the past day, with Ukrainian forces repelling multiple Russian offensives. Ukrainian missile units, air force, and artillery conducted strikes against multiple Russian targets.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, stated Friday that Russia’s claim of a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian presidential residence was false information and lacked credible evidence.

The claim was intended to delay negotiations and sow discord between the United States and Ukraine, he said.

Earlier on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a statement that Ukraine launched 91 long-range attack drones at a presidential estate in the Novgorod region late Sunday into early Monday.