Holiday traveler numbers breaking records

Chinese railways set a record in daily passenger traffic as more than 15 million trips were made on National Day on Oct 1, the first day of an eight-day holiday, and over 113 million visitors flooded domestic resorts, the rail and tourist authorities said on Oct 2.

It is the year's longest public holiday as Mid-Autumn Festival happens to coincide with the National Day holiday this year.

The first day of the holiday's estimate of 15 million trips was up by 4.2 percent from the 14.4 million trips made on National Day last year, according to rail system administrator China Railway Corp.

It said 12 million rail trips were expected on Oct 2, and 130 million rail trips forecast for the entire holiday travel season.

In addition, 560 million road trips and 15.9 million trips by water are expected, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Over 13 million trips are expected by air, an increase of 14 percent, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The number of daily flights was pegged at nearly 14,800.

Beijing Capital International Airport, China's busiest, expects to see 3.95 million trips during the rush, the airport says.

On Oct 1, cars were trapped in kilometers-long traffic jams on expressways, and passengers stood in long lines at stations and airports. Large groups of tourists crowded into resorts.

At Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangdong province, nearly 1,000 passengers missed their planes due to a traffic jam on the airport expressway, officials said. Passengers around the country were advised to take subways to airports when possible.

Provinces took measures to ease traffic congestion on Oct 1.

In Jiangsu province, police used 80 drones for traffic surveillance. About 1,000 patrol cars equipped with video transmission systems received real-time information sent by the drones. The drones had helped clear 52 minor road crashes by 4 pm on Oct 1, according to the provincial Public Security Bureau.

Tourists were estimated to have made 115 million trips across China on Oct 1, a year-on-year increase of 10.5 percent, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

Those tourists were estimated to have spent 96.5 billion yuan ($14.5 billion; 12.4 billion euros; ￡10.9 billion), 12.2 percent more than on National Day last year.

For tourists heading abroad, Russia, Australia and the United States were cited by industry sources as popular destinations, as were countries in eastern and southeastern Asia.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/06/2017 page15)