Didi Rideshare was Most Popular in Chengdu during the Spring Festival

On February 23, Didi released data on inter-city ridesharing during the Spring Festival. During the first week following Chinese New Year’s Eve (from February 15 to 21), 3.7 million people traveled between cities by Didi ride-share.

February 21 was peak day of passenger return.

From February 16 to 21, inter-city rideshare trips continued to grow as travelers taking short trips to nearby cities wanted to split gas costs. Since February 18, some people have returned to work. On February 21, the day before the public holiday ended, the return travel load peak when nearly 900,000 people returned to work. According to Didi, the Spring Festival peak return rate will last for a week or so.

Citizens in Chengdu, Quanzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou traveled most by ridesharing.

Popular departure and destination rankings during the Spring Festival showed that citizens in Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province in southwest China), Quanzhou (largest metropolitan region in Fujian province near the Taiwan Strait), Shenzhen (major city in Guangdong province in southern China) and Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong) used rideshares the most. Chengdu ranked first for both most popular departure and destination city. People in Dongguan and Huizhou, two cities in the Guangdong province, also traveled significantly by ridesharing. People in the Pearl River Delta preferred ridesharing the most.

Chengdu drivers were the most generous with free trips.

During the Spring Festival, drivers and passengers were often fellow townsmen. Many drivers generously offered free rides, which distinguished ridesharing from other traditional ways of transportation. From February 15 to 21, 8,255 rides were provided free of charge, a value of more than RMB 800,000 ($126,000). Drivers departing from Chengdu, Shijiazhuang (capital of Hebei province in north China), Quanzhou (capital and largest city of Shanxi province in north China) and Wenzhou (port and industrial city of Zhejiang province in southeast China) provided more free rides than other places. More trips to Chengdu, Quanzhou, Hangzhou (capital of Zhejiang), Suzhou (major city in Jiangsu province of east China) and Fuzhou (capital of Fujian) were provided for free than to other places.

The vast majority of trips ranged from 30 to 100 kilometers (19 to 62 miles). Popular routes mainly consisted of inter-city travel in the Pearl River Delta, such as Dongguan-Shenzhen, Huizhou-Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Dongguan, and Foshan-Guangzhou.

This is the third year for Didi rideshare to offer services during the Spring Festival. According to the forecast, Didi rideshare will assist 33 million passengers in inter-city travel during the 2018 Spring Festival.

This article originally appeared in TechWeb and was translated by Pandaily.