Spring Festival return rush underway, film industry breaks records

Saturday marks the last day of the Spring Festival holiday in China, and the rush to return to places of work or home is underway across the country.

Due to the high level of cross-regional passenger flow, according to the Ministry of Transport, the peak number of vehicles on the highway will reach 65.2 million from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, approximately 1.75 times the average volume of traffic on the road network during the Spring Festival.

Railway, road, aviation and other departments throughout the country are taking multiple measures to ensure the smooth return of passengers following the holiday.

On Friday, 799 trains departed Zhengzhou East Railway Station, carrying 150,000 passengers, China Media Group (CMG) reported. As of Saturday, tickets from Zhengzhou East Railway Station to Wuhan, Chengdu, Lanzhou, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Guangzhou direction are sold out.

In central China's Hubei Province, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport continued to operate at a high level, serving 702 flights and 105,000 passengers in a single day on Thursday. A significant increase in return passenger traffic has also been observed on the railways. Wuhan Railway Station began operating 568 trains on Friday with 838,000 passengers aboard, according to CMG. 

Pre-sales data from China's official railway ticket-booking website, 12306.cn, shows that there is a large passenger flow from Wuhan to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and other cities, while Hubei Province's passenger flows are mainly returned to Wuhan in the direction of Xiangyang, Shiyan, Yichang and others.

According to the Ministry of Public Security's traffic management bureau which monitors 73 highways and 700 important road sections, traffic flow increased by 29.5 percent when compared with the same period last year. In comparison with the same period last year, the traffic flow on 300 important road sections of 53 national and provincial highways increased by 37.1 percent.

Duty-free purchases in Hainan surge

Duty-free shopping has surged in China's island province of Hainan during the Spring Festival holiday as its tourism market continues to prosper. Haikou International Duty-Free Shopping Complex, the world's largest stand-alone duty-free store, has been bustling with large crowds of shoppers.

From February 10 to 13, duty-free sales in Hainan totaled 1.217 billion yuan (some $169 million), according to data from Haikou Customs. The number of duty-free shoppers reached 156,000, with average spending of 7,802 yuan per person.

The shopping spree started two weeks before the Chinese New Year. From January 26 to February 9, duty-free sales in Hainan reached 2.26 billion yuan, up 4.9 times from the same period last year.

The Spring Festival holiday is the most important holiday of the year for the Chinese people. Many return to their hometowns for a family reunion, while others choose to travel. Hainan's warm weather during winter makes it one of the most popular tourist destinations.

As the holiday comes to an end, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has coordinated airlines to further increase flight numbers on the Hainan route, increase capacity by replacing wide-bodied aircraft, and take multiple measures to cope with the return peak of Hainan Spring Festival travel due to a lack of tickets and high business class fares.

Spring Festival box office sets new record

As of Saturday evening, box office revenue in China for the Spring Festival holiday (including pre-sales) has surpassed 8 billion yuan (approximately $1.1 billion), setting a new record for the Spring Festival period in China's film history, according to Dengta Pro, the data analysis arm of China's leading film-ticketing platform Taopiaopiao.

Domestic comedy film "YOLO" continued to top China's daily box office chart on Friday, data from the China Movie Data Information Network showed.

The movie tells the story of an unemployed woman in her 30s who still lives with her parents until she meets a boxing coach who may change her life. The film generated daily revenue of 274.12 million yuan (about $38.59 million) on its seventh day of release.

Domestic comedy-drama "Pegasus 2" came in second, grossing about 245.69 million yuan on the day, followed by the realistic drama "Article 20," which garnered 192.69 million yuan.

A record number of cinema screenings (including pre-sales) have taken place during the 2024 Spring Festival movie season (February 10-17) as of Friday evening.