China's transportation sector gears up for chunyun

China's transportation sector is aiming to improve service quality during the Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, to make travel easier while also following epidemic control protocols, such as by setting up sites for nucleic acid tests at airports.

Monday marked the start of the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which will end on Feb 25.Due to sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks nationwide, this year's travel rush is posing extra challenges to the nation's transportation service providers.

A total of 1.18 billion passenger trips are expected to be made during this year's Spring Festival travel rush. And as it's not the first one since the start of the pandemic, transportation regulators have experience in providing better service while complying with epidemic control measures.

Railway passengers who lost or forgot to bring their ID cards can apply for an electronic ID card on a mobile phone application for temporary use on their journey, according to China State Railway Group, the national railway operator.