China's railways to see passenger surge ahead of National Day Holiday

China expects to see 18.4 million railway passenger trips on Tuesday, the eve of the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

To accommodate the surge in travel demand, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. has scheduled an additional 2,002 trains.

The railway network is projected to reach peak passenger flow on Wednesday. The holiday travel rush began on Monday and will continue until October 10.

The extra trains will primarily serve high-demand routes, including connections from major cities such as Shenzhen to Hong Kong, Wuhan, and from Beijing to Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Taiyuan, Xi'an, and Jinan, as well as routes from Guangzhou to Nanning and from Hangzhou to Beijing.

From Monday to Thursday, and again from October 7 to 9, nighttime high-speed trains will operate on busy routes. High-speed sleeper trains will also be added for connections from Beijing to Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as from Beijing and Shanghai to the southwestern provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou.

This year’s holiday will see an increase in circular high-speed rail services, thanks to new lines now in operation. For example, the recently opened Shenyang-Baihe high-speed railway in the northeastern region has enabled circular train services between the provincial capital cities of Shenyang and Changchun. Additionally, the circular high-speed rail line in eastern China's Shandong Province will operate multiple trains to cities within the province and neighboring Jiangsu Province. In northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, special tourist trains have connected the northern and southern regions.

Passengers can also buy discounted tickets on select routes. The Zhengzhou Railway Bureau is offering a 40 percent discount on business class and second-class seats for five additional nighttime high-speed trains from Luoyang Longmen Station to Zhengzhou East Station in central China's Henan Province, while first-class seats will see a 41-percent reduction from original prices.

China's railways to see passenger surge ahead of National Day Holiday

Japanese shares closed sharply lower Friday, dragged down by weak tech stocks, said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Tokyo stocks ended with heavy losses, as the benchmark Nikkei briefly plunged more than 5 percent, marking its third‑largest point drop on record.

The 225‑issue Nikkei Stock Average finished down 3,005.46 points, or 4.15 percent, at 69,360.88. The broader Topix index lost 53.11 points, or 1.32 percent, to close at 3,963.36.

On the top-tier Prime Market, nonferrous metal, information and communication, and electric appliance issues were notable decliners.

Stocks came under pressure from profit-taking following the Nikkei's surge of more than 3,100 points the previous session, with semiconductor-related shares bearing the brunt of selling.

Pope said SoftBank Group led the declines after reports emerged that OpenAI, in which it has heavily invested, is considering holding off on its initial public offering until next year.

"In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 was down more than 4 percent. This was mostly due to SoftBank shares going through the floor today. They lost 12 percent following a report in the New York Times which quoted insiders at OpenAI saying the company might delay an IPO until next year. The report said having the IPO this year would probably mean not hitting a trillion-dollar valuation, something which it seems the company's CEO Sam Altman is not willing to compromise on. SoftBank is heavily invested in OpenAI and would benefit hugely from its IPO, and it's also a heavyweight stock on the Nikkei, which moves at the whims of its big stocks. It didn't help the index today that so many of those these days are AI-related, Advantest and Tokyo Electron also traded sharply lower," Pope said.

Tokyo stocks plunge on tech sell-off