MK socks central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 20, 2025. As this year's Spring Festival travel rush began on Jan. 14, China Railway Wuhan Bureau Group Co., Ltd. has scheduled to add 47 overnight high-speed trains daily towards major cities from Jan. 20 to 27, in an effort to better cater for passengers. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun)" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-01-09/e83eca71-4f41-42b6-ae32-f29731adb4ef.jpeg" />

Passengers are seen at the waiting hall of Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 20, 2025. As this year's Spring Festival travel rush began on Jan. 14, China Railway Wuhan Bureau Group Co., Ltd. has scheduled to add 47 overnight high-speed trains daily towards major cities from Jan. 20 to 27, in an effort to better cater for passengers. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun)

During the eight-day-long Spring Festival holiday that ended on Tuesday, more than 2.3 billion passenger trips were made across all regions in China, China Media Group (CMG) reported.

The total included approximately 96.12 million railway trips, 2.2 billion road trips, 9.35 million waterway trips, and 18.29 million air trips.

The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush, which began on January 14 and will end on February 22, spans a total of 40 days. According to transport authorities, the total interregional passenger trips during this period are expected to reach 9 billion, potentially setting a new all-time high.

During the annual travel peak in China, large-scale interregional travel becomes a focal point of discussion. One of the highlights in recent years has been the increasing number of people traveling in new-energy vehicles (NEVs), thanks to the rapid expansion of charging infrastructure.

Since the beginning of this year's Spring Festival travel season, the daily number of NEVs on national highways has surpassed 6.5 million, a more than 60 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024, CMG said in another report on Tuesday.

Local governments have stepped up efforts to promote the construction of charging facilities. For instance, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Central China's Hunan Province and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region introduced mobile charging robots at highway service areas, providing flexible charging services in high-traffic zones and shifting from "drivers searching for charging stations" to "charging stations finding drivers" model, according to the Ministry of Transport.

In East China's Jiangsu Province, building on more than 1,300 existing charging piles along highways, State Grid's local branch temporarily deployed 16 mobile charging vehicles and 12 mobile charging piles at high-traffic service areas. These resources are flexibly allocated based on real-time traffic, effectively easing the "range anxiety" of NEV drivers.

In recent years, China has made significant strides in both the quality and quantity of its charging infrastructure. While earlier charging piles were slow, taking seven to eight hours to fully charge a vehicle, today's stations are equipped with fast or ultra-fast charging capabilities, Zhang Xiang, secretary general of the International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The more charging piles there are, the better the experience for drivers on long road trips, which is why an increasing number of people chose to travel using electric vehicles during the Spring Festival season, Zhang said.

China has established the world's largest charging network, with 12.8 million charging piles and 4,443 battery swapping stations. 

Additionally, fast charging technology that can charge 80 percent of a vehicle's battery in just 15 minutes has been rolled out for mass production, China's Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Zhang Yunming told a press conference on January 21.

The number of NEVs in China has grown exponentially, driving a corresponding surge in demand for charging facilities. Against this backdrop, an increasing number of industry players have entered the new sector, Zhang Xiang said.

China's leading electric car maker Nio told the Global Times on Tuesday that the company has established 3,106 battery swapping stations nationwide, including 964 along national highways. It has also set up 4,346 charging stations with 25,434 charging piles.