courtesy Baidu
China's biggest search engine, Baidu has released an interactive, real time Qianxi (or Migration) Map that tracks movements around the country during the Spring Festival travel rush. The most popular routes on February 3 appear as yellow lines.
courtesy Baidu
Being major cities with significant populations of migrant workers, Shanghai and Beijing have been seeing the most departures since spring migration began on January 24.
courtesy Baidu
Baidu also worked with China's traffic management bureau to track the country's roads. This map shows the section with the worst congestion -- the Suzhou portion of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway.
courtesy Baidu
Another handy feature of the map allows travelers to find out how crowded a specific attraction is. For instance, this snapshot of the map shows that Jing'an Temple in Shanghai is currently "very packed."
courtesy Baidu
Beijing's National Museum of China, on the other hand, is graded as merely "packed."

Story highlights

Baidu's interactive map tracks movements during China's annual Spring Festival travel rush

Some 2.9 billion trips are expected to be made over a 40-day period

CNN  — 

Though a massive crowd is trapped in a single train station, the rest of China is now on the move.

Baidu, China’s version of Google, has released an interactive map that tracks movements around the country during this year’s annual Spring Festival travel rush.

Spring migration lasts for 40 days – from January 24 to March 3 – when millions of people travel home for the Lunar New Year.

The world’s largest annual human migration, some 2.9 billion trips are expected to be made during the period.

Biggest homecoming parties

Beijing and Shanghai have witnessed the highest departure numbers since the beginning of spring migration, followed by Shenzhen and Guangzhou – all major cities with significant populations of migrant workers.

So far, China’s southwestern city of Chongqing has welcomed the most returnees – just like last year.

On February 3, most trips were made between Beijing and Shanghai.

But the Shenzhen to Chongqing and Shanghai to Chaohu (an ancient city in Hefei) routes have been the most popular over the last 11 days, according to the map.

Tourist attractions are graded by how crowded they are too.

The map shows that on the afternoon of February 3, Jing’an Temple in Shanghai was “very packed” (scoring 5 out of 5) while the National Museum of China in Beijing was rated “packed” (4/5).

Monitoring traffic jams

The most popular means of transportation during spring migration is still the automobile, with an estimated 2.48 billion trips made by car over the Lunar New Year period.

This year, the government’s traffic management bureau partnered with Baidu to launch a pingan bobao (safety broadcast) map.

The new feature highlights road traffic conditions in big cities and along major highways across the country.

The 42-kilometer Suzhou section of Beijing-Shanghai Expressway has been experiencing the worst congestion.

A portion of the Nanjing-Luoyang Expressway in Nanjing City, however, recorded the slowest traffic in general, moving 17km/h on average.

The map also highlights spots affected by accidents and fog.