Published: 17:45, April 30, 2020 | Updated: 03:23, June 6, 2023
China sees over 117m passenger trips during May Day holiday
By Xinhua

A staff member wearing a face shield walks through a long-distance bus station in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 30, 2020, ahead of the Labor Day holiday which starts on May 1. (STR / AFP)

Beijing - Over 117 million domestic trips are estimated to be made by Chinese passengers during the upcoming five-day May Day holiday, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

A tourism surge is expected in Beijing during the upcoming May Day holiday as the city has lowered its emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic, data from online travel services showed

Short inter-provincial journeys by private vehicles will be the most common means of travel, Wu Chungeng, an MOT official, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Short inter-provincial journeys by private vehicles will be the most common, Wu Chungeng, an MOT official, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Daily railway passenger trips during the holiday, running from May 1 to 5, are expected to reach five million, about one-third of the level seen during last year's same period. The number of daily road trips for the holiday is expected to reach 17.98 million.

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An estimated 450,000 daily waterway passenger trips are also expected to be made during the May Day holiday, or about 50 percent of the number made during the holiday in 2019.

Daily air passenger numbers are estimated to hit 580,000, about 33.2 percent of that for the same period last year.

Meanwhile, a tourism surge is expected in Beijing during the upcoming May Day holiday as the city has lowered its emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic, data from online travel services showed.

ALSO READ: Beijing lowers virus response level, to open museums May 1

The bookings for round-trip air tickets from and to Beijing increased 400 percent over the same period last week, according to data from Mafengwo.com, a popular online travel website, as of 10 am Thursday.

Search and reservations for Beijing local trips, car rentals, and scenic spots tickets in the May Day holiday have reached a peak since April, according to China's largest online travel agency Trip.com Group, formerly known as Ctrip.

Meituan Dianping, a leading e-commerce service provider, estimated that over five million people will have family trips in Beijing and its nearby areas during the holiday.

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Tourist attractions in Beijing have encouraged visitors to reserve visiting slots in advance to control visitor flows.

People from low-risk regions of China are not required to stay quarantined for 14 days upon arriving in Beijing since the city lowered its emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic from the top level to the second level Thursday.