China sees over 8.46 mln entry-exit trips during May Day holiday

Border inspection agencies across China handled 8.466 million entry and exit trips during the five-day May Day holiday that ended Sunday, an increase of 35.1 percent from the same period last year, the National Immigration Administration said on Monday.

The daily flow of travelers at border ports across the country peaked on May 3 to reach 1.801 million, according to the administration.

During the holiday, entry and exit trips made by mainland residents rose by 38 percent year on year, with trips by people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan going up 20.8 percent year on year, and those by foreigners rocketing 98.7 percent year on year.

In China's financial hub Shanghai, the city's two airports handled a total of 458,700 entry and exit trips in the five days, including 235,800 entry trips, up 125 percent and 96.8 percent year on year, respectively.

During the period, Shanghai customs also logged 25,000 inbound and outbound travelers via international cruise ships.

On Sunday alone, the figure reached 17,000. To ensure the smooth clearance of the cruise passengers at ports, relevant authorities in Shanghai unveiled measures to increase their handling capacity.

"We made customs clearance plans in advance through optimization of resource allocation during the holiday to ensure that we would have the capacity to handle the sudden inflow of nearly 10,000 travelers and provide services for them," said Gu Liqian, a customs officer in Baoshan District of Shanghai.

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where many border ports stand, also saw a holiday travel boom.

In the five days, more than 145,600 travelers passed through Dongxing, Youyiguan and Nanning ports, up 129 percent year on year, according to Guangxi General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection.

As of Sunday night, the border port in Dongxing City had handled 11,000 entry and exit trips during the holiday. The city welcomed 210 tour groups on Sunday alone.

"This is my first trip to China. It's very easy to go through the immigration formalities in China. During this trip to Dongxing, I plan to visit scenic spots and taste various kinds of Chinese food," said a Vietnamese tourist.

China sees over 8.46 mln entry-exit trips during May Day holiday

Over 70 percent of the projects funded by China's additional one-trillion-yuan treasury bonds issued late last year have started construction, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Saturday.

So far, 15,000 projects funded by the issued treasury bonds have been implemented, with 11,000, or 72 percent of them having started construction, said Hu He, chief of the General Office of NDRC's Investment Division, adding that efforts will be made to ensure that all the remaining projects will be in construction before late June.

"Among them (the funded projects), those for post-disaster reconstruction have seen rapid progress. Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have activated 95 percent of these projects, and a batch of post-disaster reconstruction projects for improving the people's wellbeing such as schools, hospitals, water supply facilities and roads, have basically been completed, and are ready for timely use," said Hu.

Late last year, China issued an additional one-trillion-yuan treasury bonds, mainly covering projects of eight key areas including those for post-disaster construction, enhancing north China and other regions' capacity for post-disaster reconstruction, disaster prevention and mitigation, and helping the affected regions restore their basic production and living conditions and economic development to the pre-disaster level.

"The additional treasury bonds issued in 2023 strengthened support for enhancing the capacity for post-disaster reconstruction, disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief, raising the support standards for the projects all at once, thus greatly easing the local government's financial pressure. The measure is both aimed at helping the affected population to restore as fast as possible the normal working and living conditions and enhancing the capacity for disaster prevention and relief in the long run, so as to better protect people's lives and property in the future," said Hu.

China's treasury bonds-assisted civil projects well progressing: official