Country on track for holiday travel boom

China is set to experience an unprecedented surge in travel demand during the seven-day National Day holiday, from Oct 1 to 7, with an expected 2.13 billion cross-regional trips across the country — averaging more than 300 million trips per day, said the Ministry of Transport.

The travel volume is expected to peak on Thursday, with about 340 million trips recorded on the first day of the holiday, nearly twice the normal daily level.

China's railway network is handling the heaviest passenger flow in its history. About 284 million passenger trips are expected during the 16-day railway holiday travel period from Sept 23 to Oct 8, with an average of about 13,000 passenger trains planned per day, according to national railway operator China State Railway Group.

On Oct 1 alone, the national railway system is expected to transport 24.8 million passengers, with 2,324 additional trains deployed, it said.

To accommodate the surge, railway operators have added about 700 overnight high-speed rail services on trunk lines including the Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Harbin routes. Major hubs such as Wuhan in Hubei province and Nanchang in Jiangxi province have launched round-the-clock operations.

Additionally, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, from Sept 25 to Oct 7, the country's civil aviation sector is expected to transport 31.19 million passengers, averaging 2.4 million per day, an increase of 3.6 percent.

The single-day peak is expected to exceed 2.6 million passenger trips, surpassing the level recorded in the same period last year.

In the domestic market, air passenger traffic in major cities remains high, while traffic to distinctive tourist cities is growing rapidly, the administration said.

In the international market, holiday ticket bookings rose 22.5 percent year-on-year. Neighboring countries remain popular tourist destinations, with flight volumes to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Laos increasing by 20 percent. Long-haul international routes to the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain also saw a 15 percent increase, it said.

Road travel, especially self-driving, is expected to account for more than 90 percent of all trips during the holiday, said Li Yang, vice-minister of transport.

Highway traffic on the first day of the holiday is expected to reach 71 million vehicle trips, nearly 1.9 times the daily average in August of about 37 million, said Li, adding that people's willingness to travel and tour during the holiday will be strong.

To prevent long and large-scale congestion at popular scenic spots and key road sections, the ministry has taken a series of measures. It has developed an AI-powered road network assessment tool using historical and forecast data to identify sections of road nationwide that may see serious congestion, Li said.

Li Zhe, a traveler from Beijing, is planning a five-day self-driving trip to the Greater Khingan Mountains from Oct 2 to 6 with three friends he found on a social media platform.

The route will pass through provincial-level regions of Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, covering some 3,000 kilometers.

"We are looking forward to enjoying the open road and we are not afraid of the tight schedule," he said.