Between October 1 and 8, China will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. The country’s Ministry of Transport forecasts about 2.36 billion passenger trips nationwide during the eight-day vacation.
“The main mode of transport is still the private vehicle. The number of private vehicle trips during the Mid-Autumn Holiday and this year’s National Day is expected to reach 1.87 billion, or 80% of the total travel volume,” said Li Yang, China’s Deputy Minister of Transport.
The senior official explained that in the periods of greatest influx, the volume of traffic on the highways could exceed 70 million vehicles per day, a total that will include about 14 million new energy vehicles.
Meanwhile, airlines will handle 19.2 million passenger travel, which represents a year-on-year increase of 3.6% and marks the highest level recorded for this period.
Li indicated that there will be a noticeable increase in medium and long-distance travel, driven by a boom in tourism. He also stressed that the beginning and end of the holidays will concentrate the flow of passengers, whose peak will occur on October 1. Popular destinations such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, Xi’an and the Great Wall of China – one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, are expected to receive more tourists than last year.
And a substantial increase in Chinese tourists visiting international destinations such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asian countries is also projected. Chinese authorities predict more than 18 million trips per day on average on national railways. While the country’s civil aviation also expects to record a record number of passenger trips.