Auto shows drive up holiday consumption

Auto shows now held across China are driving up consumption during the five-day May Day Holiday, which started on Thursday.

Auto Shanghai 2025, one of the world's largest automotive exhibitions, which concluded on Friday after a 10-day run, drew approximately 1.01 million visitors from both home and abroad, including 63,000 overseas participants from 97 countries and regions.

The event was deliberately timed to coincide with the May Day holiday and introduced exclusive consumer vouchers that spanned cultural, tourism, commercial, and sports sectors, generating over one million yuan (about 137,526 U.S. dollars) in total spending.

"Through the ticket purchase app for the Shanghai Auto Show, we involved some other tourism and cultural events so that people could visit the auto show while making trips to other renowned tourist attractions in Shanghai for leisure," said Gu Chunting, vice chairman of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai.

As the Shanghai Auto Show wrapped up, the Suzhou International Auto Show opened on Thursday, taking over the spotlight. Covering a floor space of over 100,000 square meters, the event in east China's Jiangsu Province gathered more than 100 global automotive brands and over 1,000 popular vehicle models. Coupled with various favorable policy subsidies, the show has fully unleashed the five-day holiday consumption potential.

"The state's trade-in subsidy, Suzhou's new energy vehicle subsidy, and various car purchase incentives, plus exclusive promotional policies offered by major automakers for the five-day auto show, have combined to create an optimal opportunity of the year for consumers to acquire a vehicle," said Peng Jianming, an event organizer.

Over 80 cities across the country have held nearly 100 auto shows on various scales during the May Day holiday this year.

At these auto shows, intelligent and new energy vehicles (NEVs) have become top-selling products. Data reported that NEVs at many auto shows account for more than 60 percent of the transactions, reflecting the greater popularity of green consumption concept.

Auto shows drive up holiday consumption

Auto shows drive up holiday consumption

Auto shows drive up holiday consumption

Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting French President Emmanuel Macron held friendly exchanges on Friday in Dujiangyan in Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Macron arrived in Chengdu on the previous evening for the second stop of his three-day state visit to China at the invitation of President Xi.

Upon their arrival in Chengdu, Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, were warmly received by Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan. Welcoming them to Sichuan, which is known in China as the "Land of Abundance", Xi recalled his visit last year to France's Hautes-Pyrenees Department at Macron's invitation. Xi said he believed that Macron's latest visit will help further deepen his understanding of China.

The two presidents together visited the more than two-millennia-old Dujiangyan irrigation system, a major water conservancy project located along the Minjiang River which was built during China's Warring States period (475-221 BC) and has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Xi noted that the Dujiangyan irrigation system is the world's only ancient irrigation project still in operation today, and also one of the earliest successful practices of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, adding that its construction process fully reflects the Chinese nation's spirit of constant self-improvement, fearlessness in the face of hardships, and courage to forge ahead.

Macron is set to conclude his state visit to China later on Friday, after having held talks with senior Chinese leaders in Beijing before traveling to Chengdu late on Thursday.

The French president is currently embarking on his fourth state visit to the country, with this being a reciprocal visit following President Xi's historic trip to France last year which came as the two sides marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.

The city of Chengdu also has a long-standing relationship with France. In 1981, Chengdu and France's Montpellier became the first pair of sister cities between the two countries.

Xi, Macron visit site of ancient irrigation system in Chengdu