China's Expressways: The Powerhouse Behind 3 Billion Trips During Spring Rush

Returning home for the Lunar New Year is the most heartfelt longing for every wanderer, a desire that even blizzards and freezing rain cannot extinguish.

As ticket snatching on the 12306 platform grows fiercer, the Spring Festival travel rush—the planet's largest annual human migration—has quietly begun. During this year's 40-day travel period, an estimated 9 billion cross-regional trips are expected, doubling last year's figure (approximately 4.733 billion) and nearly matching the total population of our planet.

Vehicles waiting to cross the Qiongzhou Strait by ferry during the Spring Festival travel season.

Photo/VCG

As the Lunar New Year's Eve approaches, the crisscrossing highways, railways, and even the invisible flight routes in the sky are operating at unprecedented capacity with precision. When flights are canceled and train tickets are hard to come by, highways become the last lifeline for wanderers returning home, sparing them the ordeal of a "lost journey." Spanning 177,000 kilometers across mountains, rivers, and even seas, these highways are the proud achievement of the "infrastructure powerhouse" and the essential path for every wanderer's homecoming.

However, with the recent snow and rain, dozens of highways in Hubei have imposed temporary traffic controls, leaving some travelers stranded for over ten hours. Please travel rationally and avoid restricted or hazardous routes. After all, safety is the top priority on the journey home!

Fuyin Expressway. Photo/Dick Gao

The Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, stretching over 30 kilometers. Photo/VCG

The Lianhuo Expressway, a lifeline across the Gobi Desert. Photo/VCG

The snowy scenery of Ganhaizi Bridge on the Ya'an-Xichang section of the Beijing-Kunming Expressway. Photo/Dick Gao

Flowing on the highways home

For the Lunar New Year, should one choose rail or road? For millions of migrant workers in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, this seems like an easy decision—unless 12306 tickets are sold out.

In Foshan, Guangdong, an army of motorcycles gathers, ready to embark on the journey home.

Photo/VCG

Yet, stepping out of the comfort zone of big-city convenience and expanding this "survey" to smaller, less spotlighted cities, highways emerge as the top choice for Chinese returning home—outpacing railways by an overwhelming margin of 3 billion to 480 million trips.

The total passenger flow between railways and highways isn't even in the same league.

Even for larger cities with populations over 1 million, high-speed rail coverage hasn't reached 100%. Compared to the linear, steel-drawn high-speed rail, the relatively "unremarkable" highways spread like ink across China's vast landscape, connecting even the smallest county-level administrative divisions. Among China's 31 provincial-level regions (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), 21 have officially achieved "county-to-county expressway access."

(Click 3 times to view the complete map of China's national expressway network) 👇

Do you know the naming rules of these expressways?

Compared to expensive airfare and the struggle for train tickets, toll-free highways during the holiday offer a highly cost-effective travel option. They provide convenience and flexibility while serving as the last resort for everyone to get home when flights and trains are unavailable.

In the movie "Lost on Journey," driving became the last resort for returning home during the Chinese New Year.

Source/"Lost on Journey"

To take a step back, even if taking the train fulfills the "basic necessity" of reuniting with parents, it often involves the whole family joyfully packing the car with New Year goods to visit elderly relatives in rural areas unreachable by rail. For Shandong locals, returning home in an administrative jacket, driving a car with a trunk full of rice, flour, oil, and other festive supplies—casually mentioning while unloading, "These are all from my workplace, more than we can eat"—is enough to impress the entire neighborhood, basking in the year-round glory of being the "child every parent praises."

Similar scenes are not limited to Shandong but unfold across the country during the New Year. With over 300 million cars, China has surpassed the U.S. as a "nation on wheels," offering unparalleled convenience for driving home in terms of time and space. Families become "space management experts," meticulously utilizing every inch of the car.

Post-holiday car trunks stuffed to the brim, even including a live pig.

The trunk of a homebound car is like Doraemon's interdimensional pocket, filled with rare treats usually too precious to eat, all packed for the journey home. As the holiday ends and farewells loom, the return trip's trunk must not be empty—oily sausages, steamed buns larger than faces, vacuum-sealed meats... These heartfelt, locally distinctive products complete an annual epic exchange on the highways during the Spring Festival migration.

Highways densely packed with vehicles.

Image/VCG

On the New Year's homebound highways, hustle and bustle are the constant themes, while service areas are rare oases of relaxation. They are like acupoints along the highway's "meridians," offering comfort to travelers.

Lushan Xihai Service Area, with scenery rivaling tourist attractions.

They’re far more than just toilets and instant noodles for basic needs—what era is this, still visiting traditional rest stops? Come to Jiangsu, where service zones will astonish you: supermarkets, new energy vehicle showrooms, even Suzhou-style gardens and dinosaur parks—all packed into tiny highway rest areas.

Yangcheng Lake Service Area and Fangmaoshan Dinosaur-Themed Service Area.

Left photo/Arthur

Right image/VCG

Suzhou’s Yangcheng Lake Service Area is hailed as the "pinnacle of service zones." Inside its Hui-style black-and-white architecture, a vast sky-painted ceiling arches over a food street with flowing streams and Kunqu opera performances. If these touristy tactics seem overdone, Suzhou even transplanted an entire classical garden into the service area—every few steps a new vista, rivaling the famed Shantang Street.

Yangcheng Lake Service Area’s food street, designed like a Jiangnan watertown.

Photo/Arthur

Just 40 km from Yangcheng Lake, a short drive away, Wuxi Meicun Service Area seamlessly continues the luxury with a "Wanda-style" shopping mall offering all-in-one entertainment. Some detour hundreds of kilometers just to visit, crowding it like a holiday attraction—averaging over 4 hours of daily congestion, making it China’s busiest service zone.

Jiangsu’s highway service areas often feature sleek, modern designs.

Image/VCG

In the affluent Jiangnan region, known as the "land of fish and rice" for over a thousand years, hosts in Suzhou and Wuxi never hesitate to attract travelers who understand the principle of "traveling like the rich even if poor" with their extravagant "old money" charm. In contrast, Changzhou in southern Jiangsu maintains a much lower profile, with its Maoshan Service Area standing out like a "hidden master" among service areas.

Perhaps due to its proximity to the ethereal Maoshan Mountain, setting foot in this "heavenly grotto" surrounded by water on three sides often requires the kind of serendipitous encounters found in martial arts novels. After all, turning off the main Huwu Expressway into Maoshan Service Area involves nearly a kilometer of winding detours, making it feel more like a scenic resort nestled in the mountains and waters than a typical highway rest stop.

The Maoshan Service Area, encircled by water on three sides, resembles a mystical paradise from a xianxia world.

From Yangzhou Guangling's exclusive "Tang Cat" IP to Changzhou Gehu's European-style castle and Fangmaoshan's dinosaur theme park, the people of Tongxiang—who previously created hit tourist destinations like Wuzhen and Gubei Water Town—are now spearheading a nationwide upgrade across China's 7,692 highway service areas.

Gehu Service Area, a perfect blend of European architecture and natural scenery.

Shandong Changle South Service Area's Russian-themed luxury boutiques, Hubei Wudangshan's "service area island" perched atop the Danjiangkou Reservoir, Zhejiang Tonglu's Dyson hand dryers in restrooms—highway service areas along your journey home are sure to amaze.

Wudangshan Service Area, situated on a small island in the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

How impressive are the highways of the "infrastructure powerhouse"?

Driving along straight and smooth expressways, with the hum of tires and engines, we have every reason to feel proud: China's expressway network, now composed of 7 radial routes from the capital, 11 north-south corridors, and 18 east-west routes, spans approximately 177,000 kilometers—the longest in the world.

Guangzhou's Haixinsha Bridge on Nansha Island.

Guangdong Province, ranking first in expressway mileage nationwide, boasts over 11,000 kilometers of highways—on par with France's entire network. Scaling mountains and bridging rivers, locals have taken the adage "to get rich, build roads first" to the extreme. Countless freight trucks flow day and night across the Pearl River Delta's dense expressway network, sustaining the pulse of the "world's factory." The Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway, linking Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen, is often rated as the busiest in China.

The Qianhai section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Coastal Expressway.

Image credit/VCG

To truly grasp the "infrastructure powerhouse's" prowess, look no further than Guizhou. As the only province in China without plains, Guizhou has smoothed the rugged terrain with bridges spanning hundreds of meters. By the end of 2015, it achieved the feat of connecting every county by expressway—ranking seventh nationwide and even outpacing economic powerhouses like Zhejiang and Shandong.

Shandong is another indispensable player in China's expressway network. From 1998 to 2005, it led the country in highway mileage, cementing its status as a veteran expressway powerhouse. Driving on Shandong's highways by day, one immediately notices their remarkable straightness and width. Some audacious eight-lane stretches could even accommodate aircraft takeoffs and landings, reflecting the province's strategic "wartime readiness" confidence.

The intricate interchange network on the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway.

Yet come nightfall, these grand roads transform abruptly: multicolored laser lights shoot skyward without warning, plunging drivers into an inexplicable "underground rave." Stranger still, these lights appear and vanish unpredictably, seemingly just to startle. Their ever-shifting hues create immersive cinematic moments—green evokes Taoist priest Lam Ching-ying's ghostbusting shift, blue suggests an Avatar visiting from Pandora, and red bathes faces like the glow of heroes in *Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy*.

Despite their "cyberpunk" presentation, their purpose is straightforward: safety, safety, and more safety! The random appearances jolt drowsy drivers awake at night, while the changing colors prevent visual monotony.

The "rainbow clouds" over Shandong's expressways.

Source/Nandu Weekly

As over ten provinces grapple with widespread rain and snow, the safety and smooth journey home have become the foremost shared wish of people nationwide. With this "auspicious rainbow cloud" accompanying the way, may every wanderer who has been away for a year return safely and on time.

May you return home safely and enjoy a joyful New Year, my friend!

Cover image credit | Visual China