Passengers wait to board trains at Nanning East Railway Station in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 29, 2023. (Photo: Xinhua)
As Chinese holiday-makers welcome the first long holiday after the seven-day-long Spring Festival holiday since January, the country has seen a travel rush and a boom in tourism.
The China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. estimated that the number of passenger trips handled by the country's railways would reach 19.5 million on Saturday, the first day of the five-day-long May Day holiday, which is expected to be a new high in terms of single-day passenger traffic.
According to earlier data, about 120 million domestic trips were expected to be made by Chinese railway passengers from April 27 to May 4 around the May Day holiday.
In order to meet people's travel needs, China's railways are maximizing their transportation potential and increasing their capacity while improving their service quality to ensure that passengers have better experiences.
People take selfies at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, capital of China, April 29, 2023. (Photo: Xinhua)
The Ministry of Transport forecasted that the total number of passenger trips on the first day of the holiday would be 56.99 million, a 151.8% increase from the same day of last year.
Road trips were expected to surge by 98.8 percent to 34.5 million, while air trips would rocket by 441.8 percent to 2.04 million, with passenger volume by ship rising by 86.2 percent to 950,000.
Highway passenger car flow is expected to grow by 120.03 percent to 56.35 million units.
With surging travel demand comes a booming tourism sector. The China Tourism Academy stated that approximately 240 million tourism trips are expected during the holiday season, likely to reach the same level as 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, more than 120 billion yuan ($17.4 billion) of revenue is anticipated to be created in tourism.
