Editor's Note

China braces for another round of peak travel as millions of holiday-makers return for work this weekend, ending the nation’s longest-ever Golden Week holiday starting from September 30. However, as Chinese tourists swarmed to scenic spots home and abroad during the eight-day holiday, what was intended to provide the Chinese workforce with a chance at a relaxing and romantic vacation was instead marred with traffic congestion and complaints.

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Travel Peak

Tourism Peak

Viewpoints

Holidays offer chance to reflect on nation’s future

The eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays are approaching. It might be time to revisit the topic of our national identity.

The domestic and external environment for China has been pressing this year. A series of incidents have been widely discussed online. Accordingly, Chinese society is building its capabilities to adapt to the emerging issues.

Chinese Media Digest

The Beijing News considered in an editorial piece Sunday that the root of Golden Week travel woes is the government’s tendency of “addressing an incident or social problem via a special project”, such as offering a nationwide extended vacation to meet public demand for holiday time.

The Guangzhou Daily opined that the travel rush is rooted in the difference between vacation time needed and the actual time off they are given by employers.

The Shenzhen-based Jing Daily considered that a combination of paid vacations and more short-term holidays can help satisfy demand for vacation and improve travel conditions.

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Related Figures

Authorities predict that around 740 million trips will be made by Chinese people during the vacation that combines the National Day Holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Around 660 million trips will be made on roads and waters, averaging 82.5 million trips daily, up 8.8 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, 75.4 million trips, averaging nearly 7 million a day, will be made on railways.

Railway authorities expect record-breaking passenger numbers, with up to 9 million predicted take the trains on Oct. 1, up 320,000 compared with the travel peak last year.

The number of travelers taking to China's highways totaled 85 million by 4 pm on Sunday, the first day of the eight-day "Golden Week" holiday. The figure is 13.3 percent more than the equivalent period last year, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Transport.

China's railways carried a record high of 9.14 million passengers on the first day of the eight-day holiday, the country's Ministry of Railways announced on Tuesday.

Trains are expected to carry a total of 7.7 million passengers on October 6 while the country's roads are dealing with a combined passenger volume of 80.81 million, a year-on-year rise of 7.6 percent, according to the ministries of railways and transport.

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