Photo:VCG

Networks of Chinese expressways, railways and civil aviation are embracing a gradual surge in travel as people wrap up their long break during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that end on Friday.

The 2023 Golden Week lasts from September 29 to October 6. The 8-day holiday is the longest public holiday of the year.

Starting from Wednesday, the flow of people and vehicles began to shift from major scenic spots to main highways.

Judging from the traffic along 700 important passages on 73 expressways and 300 important passages on 53 national highways monitored by the traffic administration bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, expressway traffic picked up significantly on the sixth day of the holidays, up 8.8 percent month-on-month.

It is expected the return traffic volume will further increase on Thursday, especially on the roads surrounding cities in hotspot areas such as Beijing, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta, the traffic administration bureau said.

Rail trips are also seeing a remarkable surge. The national railways are expected to carry 17.95 million passenger trips on Thursday, with 12,351 passenger trains planned, including 1,729 additional trains, according to China Railway, the national rail operator. The volume of passenger trips stood at 17.05 million on Wednesday.

The railway network in the Yangtze River Delta region is expected to deliver 3.4 million passenger trips on Thursday, according to the China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group Co.

The region witnessed more than 21 million railway passenger trips during September 29 to Wednesday, up 22.6 percent compared to the volume in 2019, operating at a continuously high level.

Airports are also expected to experience a peak in return trips on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday, flight volume has already seen a noticeable jump. Airlines are expected to carry 2.26 million passenger trips on Thursday, an increase of 1.9 percent compared to Wednesday. Shenzhen airport said it handled more than 170,000 passenger trips on Wednesday alone.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has estimated that more than 21 million passengers will travel by air during the holidays. A total of 137,000 flights are expected to be handled, with an average of over 17,000 flights per day.

An estimated around 800 million travel trips will be made during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. With record demand for travel and the sustained economic impact of the Asian Games, this year's Golden Week holidays are poised to become the most vibrant and prosperous in recent memory.

This might be the hottest "golden week" holidays ever, according to Dai Bin, president of China Tourism Academy. The institution predicted that over 100 million passenger trips are expected to be made across the country each day on average during the period.

Apart from huge number of passenger trips, consumption during the holidays is also expected to surge, serving as a vivid reflection of the unwavering confidence of the Chinese people in the country's economy and bright future.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism estimated that domestic tourism revenue is expected to reach 782.5 billion yuan ($107.2 billion), up by 138 percent on a yearly basis.

Global Times