Short-distance trips surge on second day of China's May Day Holiday

China

Short-distance trips surge on second day of China's May Day Holiday

2025-05-02 17:12 Last Updated At：20:27

China's transportation system continued to maintain high-level operation nationwide to handle the holiday passenger surges on Friday, as short-haul trips rose sharply on the second day of the May Day holiday.

China's railway system handled 23.119 million passenger trips nationwide on Thursday, setting a new record for single-day passenger volume for the annual May Day holiday. The total passenger flow is expected to decline on Friday, but the proportion of short-distance passenger trips have increased significantly.

Railway authorities have enhanced the capacity of passenger transportation on popular routes between regions. The Guangzhou Railway Bureau expected to handle 2.68 million passenger trips on Friday, a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent. The railway system of the Yangtze River Delta expects to handle 4.18 million passenger trips on Friday.

The passenger flow on the Hangzhou-Taizhou high-speed railway, in east China’s Zhejiang Province, has increased by more than 60 percent compared with normal days.

"To cope with the peak passenger flow, the Shaoxing North Station plans to add 25 trains, 14 of which will operate on the Hangzhou-Taizhou High-speed Railway, mainly bound to Hangzhou, Shanghai and Wenling," said Wang Jinlan, ticket sales manager of the Shaoxing North Station.

Road trips had also surged, with national expressways expected to handle over 55 million passenger vehicle trips on Friday. In the day, road travels across the country have mainly been short-distance ones within a same province and tours to nearby attractions.

Transportation and power departments in various regions have taken measures to ensure the charging of new energy vehicles.

At the Shandong Wucheng Service Area along the Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway, support personnel from the local power department have carefully inspected the 71 charging piles at 19 charging stations in the area, to promptly eliminate possible safety hazards.

In efforts to reduce possible congestion caused by charging new energy vehicles, Zhejiang's transportation and power supply authorities have upgraded the charging facilities at the Tiantai Service Area of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Expressway, adding 20 fast-charging piles that can charge 40 NEVs at a same time.

At the Hengshui service area along the G45 Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway, in north China's Hebei Province, local transportation and power authorities have added mobile charging facilities, and used drones to guide car owners in real time to charge at the closest charging station in a timely manner, thereby improving charging efficiency.

The country's civil aviation system expects to handle a total of 2.16 million passenger trips on Friday.

As for water transportation, it is estimated that more than 2 million passenger trips will be made by water nationwide on Friday. The maritime authorities will conduct dynamic inspection and monitoring of long-distance passenger ships throughout the voyage to ensure the safety of water passenger transportation.

Russia ready to talk with Ukraine at U.S. military base: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia is fully prepared and willing to negotiate with Ukraine at a U.S. military facility in Anchorage, Alaska, while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting.

At a meeting with heads of major international news agencies attending the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said Russia remains prepared to pursue a negotiated settlement based on a framework discussed with U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting in Anchorage in August 2025.

He said Russia is ready to accept the compromises discussed at the meeting and expressed hope that the Ukrainian side would also agree to them.

Ukraine has previously rejected the Anchorage framework, as it calls for Ukraine to cede territory.

Meanwhile, Putin said Russian troops are advancing along the entire line of contact and have taken complete control of the Luhansk region, 85 percent of the Donetsk region and 80 percent of the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russia's Presidential Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev said at the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday that despite efforts by forces seeking to prolong the war to disrupt talks between Russia and the U.S., bilateral engagement on Ukraine has made substantive progress.

Dmitriev dismissed reports that Russia-U.S. contacts have stalled, accusing other European nations of spreading disinformation to hinder the peace process.

Dmitriev also said that on Wednesday he had spoken by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and discussed bilateral economic cooperation.

He said the U.S. side had underscored the need to embrace peace rather than engage in constant provocations and confrontations.

The U.S. has been pushing for peace and Ukraine should join the process, Dmitriev noted, adding there were plans for further contacts with Witkoff and Kushner next week.

Later on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to Putin, proposing to end the conflict through direct talks between the two leaders.

Relevant parties, including European countries and the U.S., should be part of the peace negotiations, the letter stated.

Ukraine is ready for a complete ceasefire during the talks and proposes an exchange of prisoners of war on the principle of "all for all," Zelensky also said in the letter.