This year, more than 60 percent of Chinese have chosen high-speed trains to get them home for the Spring Festival, Chinanews.com reported on Feb. 13.

High-speed trains have made travel easier and more comfortable. “Before, it took me 16 hours by train to get home, and because of that, I could only go home twice at year, at most,” said a passenger surnamed Zhang, who comes from Chengdu and works in Xi’an.

The opening of the Xi’an-Chengdu High-speed Railway has cut travel time between the two cities to around three hours, enabling Zhang to go home twice a month.

The total mileage of China’s high-speed railway network has reached 25,000 kilometers. With the operation of the Baoji-Lanzhou, Xi’an-Chengdu, Shijiazhuang-Jinan high-speed railways, more people will, for the first time, return home for the Spring Festival by high-speed trains like Zhang.

“With high-speed trains, I can embark on a train from Beijing in the morning and get home in the evening,” said a passenger surnamed Liu, who comes from central China’s Hunan province and works in Beijing.

A person with China Railway disclosed that more than 5,600 high-speed trains will serve every day during the Spring Festival travel rush, accounting for 65 percent of the total number.