Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

The week-long National Day holiday has entered the return peak on Monday, with holidaymakers across China hasting their return itineraries by train, car and air, spurring holiday traffic culmination.

The National Day holiday, also known as "golden week," is usually one of the peak travel seasons on China's domestic tourism calendar.

Railways across the country handled 18.52 million passengers on Sunday and are expected to handle 19.86 million passengers on Monday, with 1,705 additional trains scheduled.

Expressways nationwide continue to experience high traffic volumes, primarily due to return trips. The total traffic volume on these expressways is expected to reach 63 million on Monday.

Meanwhile, the country's civil aviation sector is expected to transport over 2.2 million passengers on the same day, with more than 17,000 flights scheduled for domestic routes and over 2,500 flights for inbound and outbound routes.

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

The Republic of Korea (ROK) will implement the tariff agreement with the United States and calmly respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hike announcement, the presidential office said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung told a press briefing that a meeting on trade issues with the United States was held at the presidential office, or the Blue House, to assess the situation over Trump's tariff hike announcement and discuss countermeasures.

Trump said on his social media on Monday that he would increase ROK tariffs on autos, lumber, pharma, and all other reciprocal tariffs from 15 percent to 25 percent, accusing the ROK's legislature of not having enacted a bilateral trade agreement with the United States.

Kang said Seoul planned to convey its commitment to implementing the ROK-U.S. trade agreement to the U.S. side while taking a calm response, as the tariff increases only take effect following administrative procedures in the United States.

It indicated that the ROK would take a measured approach by closely analyzing Trump's true intentions and the background behind his remarks, as his social media posts do not immediately lead to tariff hikes.

The Blue House meeting was also attended via phone by Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-kwan who is currently in Canada as part of Seoul's special mission for strategic economic cooperation.

Kim will visit the United States after his schedule in Canada to discuss the tariff issues with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the presidential office.

Yonhap News Agency reported that under a joint fact sheet released after a ROK-U.S. summit held in Gyeongju last October, the United States agreed to lower tariffs on ROK products, including automobiles, in exchange for the ROK making 350 billion U.S. dollars in investments in the United States.

The two sides later signed a joint memorandum on Nov. 14, stipulating that tariff cuts would be applied retroactively from the first day of the month in which relevant legislation was submitted to the ROK parliament to implement the agreement.

The ROK's ruling Democratic Party submitted a special bill on U.S. investment to the National Assembly on Nov. 26, and the United States subsequently retroactively lowered tariffs on ROK automobiles to 15 percent on Dec. 4.

ROK to implement tariff agreement with U.S., calmly respond to Trump's tariff hike announcement