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BEIJING: Hundreds of millions of Chinese criss-cross the country during the Lunar New Year holidays each year to reunite with families back in their hometowns or for sight-seeing during an extended festive period, making it the world’s largest annual human migration. The Lunar New Year travel rush, known as Chunyun in Chinese, is often seen as a barometer for China’s economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system.

This year’s Lunar New Year travel rush kicked off on Tuesday and will last for 40 days, concluding on Feb.22.

The official Spring Festival holidays, as the new year celebrations are known in China, will run from Jan.28 to Feb.4.

Officials are expecting a record 9 billion domestic trips during the 40-day period, an increase from the around 8.4 billion trips logged last year. Road trips, expected to reach 7.2 billion journeys this year, are projected to account for about 80 percent of all trips, followed by train and air travel.

Rail travel is set to hit a record 510 million trips, a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase, while air travel is expected to exceed 90 million trips.

Top air travel destinations include cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing, Harbin and Xian, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Internationally, flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Singapore are also seeing strong demand, according to the civil aviation regulator.

On the first day of Chunyun, total domestic travel is expected to reach 172.39 million trips, including 159.52 million by road, 10.3 million by rail, 2.04 million by air and 530,000 by waterways, the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.

This year’s travel rush comes as China extended the official Spring Festival break by one day to eight days. The country also expanded its visa-free entry policy to 38 countries, including nearby Japan and South Korea, and doubled the stay period to 30 days. For eligible foreign transit travelers, the permitted stay was extended to 10 days. It was up to six days previously.

LONDON: The British minister responsible for financial services and fighting corruption resigned on Tuesday after weeks of questions over her financial ties to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, ousted last year as prime minister of Bangladesh.
Tulip Siddiq, 42, had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week he had full confidence in her.
The resignation of a second government minister in two months is a blow to Starmer, whose approval ratings have plunged since his Labour Party won a general election in July.
Siddiq was handed the portfolio for financial services policy after the election, a role that included responsibility for measures against money-laundering.
In a statement, Siddiq said although an investigation into her financial affairs found she had not breached the ministerial code of conduct, her position was “likely to be a distraction from the work of the government.”
“I have therefore decided to resign from my ministerial position,” she said.
Starmer swiftly appointed Emma Reynolds, who was a pensions minister, to Siddiq’s role.
Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh since 2009, is being investigated there on suspicion of corruption and money laundering. Hasina and her party deny wrongdoing.
Siddiq was named in December as part of Bangladesh’s investigation into whether her family were involved in siphoning off funds from Bangladeshi infrastructure projects.
The anti-corruption commission alleged financial irregularities worth billions of dollars in the awarding of a $12.65 billion nuclear power contract, saying Hasina and Siddiq may have benefited.
After facing further scrutiny over the use of properties in Britain linked to Hasina and her supporters, Siddiq referred herself to the government’s independent ethics adviser.
Siddiq lived in a north London property given to her family in 2009 by Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi lawyer who has represented Hasina’s government, documents filed with Companies House and the Land Registry show.
She also acquired a separate property in London in 2004, without paying for it, from a developer linked to the Awami League, Hasina’s political party, the Financial Times reported this month.
Hasina fled Bangladesh after being toppled following weeks of protests.
Siddiq’s departure follows the resignation of British transport minister Louise Haigh late last year. Haigh acknowledged a minor criminal offense before she entered government, relating to a mobile phone that she had wrongly reported stolen.