Two weeks away from the Chinese New Year, many have already embarked on journeys to their hometowns.

Monday marks the beginning of an official 40-day travel rush period, known as "chun-yun". This year, about three billion trips are expected to be made, a slight increase on last year. Thousands of train services are being added to meet the demand. Meanwhile, China's aviation authority says it's scheduling extra 35-thousand flights for "chun-yun"--- and more than 11-hundred of these will cross the Taiwan Strait. This year, the Chinese New Year falls on February 5th, ushering in the year of the pig. CGTN's Frances Kuo has more.

It's the largest travel rush season on the planet.

LIAN WEILIANG, VICE CHAIRMAN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM COMMISSION "The load before the Spring Festival is expected to be heavier than after. But the overall capacity should better meet the demand of passengers this year."

In the last four decades, many Chinese have left their hometowns to seek work or education elsewhere.

But it's both a tradition and a ritual to reunite with family during the Spring Festival.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese will make trips before and after the holiday, putting tremendous pressure on China's transportation network.

Of the nearly three billion expected trips, China's railway network will handle an anticipated 413 million of them, an 8 percent jump over last year.

Air travel will see about 73 million, a 12 percent hike.

The nation's waterways will see about 43 million.

And the vast majority remaining about two-and-a-half billion will hit the road.

Officials promise more comfortable travels this time around.

LI WENXIN, VICE GENERAL MANAGER CHINA RAILWAY CORPORATION "We are adding extra trains to defray overcrowdedness. Many ticketing services have moved online to save passengers' time at the station. We have also enlarged the waiting rooms at many stations."

DONG ZHIYI, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR CIVIL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA "Electronic boarding pass and self-service check-in are now available at more than 200 airports. On-board wifi is now available on more than 300 planes."

The world's largest annual migration about to hit its peak. Frances Kuo, CGTN.