Passengers prepare to board trains during the Spring Festival travel rush at Shenzhen North railway station in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province, Jan 18, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING – China saw railway passenger trips climb 48.7 percent year on year to over 100 million after the Spring Festival, as the country's shift in COVID-19 response unleashed pent-up travel demand.

A total of 102 million trips were made by train from Jan 22 to Feb 1, 33.51 million more than the same period last year, data from China State Railway Group Co Ltd shows.

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The company said 9.31 million passenger trips were made on average daily in the period, about 90 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.

Additional trains were put into operation to meet the rising travel demand, and "point-to-point" trains sent migrant workers back to their workplaces directly.

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The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, and spending the turn of the new year with loved ones is a ritual for Chinese people. This year's Spring Festival fell on Jan 22.

With Xinhua inputs