Travel enthusiasm remained high across China on Thursday, the second day of the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, with transportation networks continuing to manage elevated passenger flows.
China's national railway system experienced a historic peak on Wednesday, handling a record-breaking 23.13 million passenger trips in a single day. For Thursday, the railway network expects to see 19.3 million passenger trips with an additional 1,409 trains arranged to accommodate the demand.
Newly opened high-speed rail lines, such as the Xiangyang-Jingmen and Shenyang-Baishan routes, started serving passengers during a major holiday for the first time.
Railway authorities across the country have implemented measures to cope with the peak passengers flows, including optimizing services and strengthening emergency response protocols.
"During this year's National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, there has been a significant increase in passengers needing assistance compared with other days. We provide them with thorough services that covers the entire process, from entering the station and waiting, to ticket checks and boarding, all the way to arriving at and exiting the station," said Han Wenwen, leader of the service team at the Beijing South Railway Station.
On the roads, the total traffic volume on national expressways was expected to reach 61.2 million vehicles on Thursday. Traffic was concentrated on highways leading in and out of key urban clusters like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing area, as well as on national and provincial roads near popular tourist attractions.
Transportation departments in provinces like Hebei and Shandong have deployed intelligent inspection systems for comprehensive monitoring and enhanced information sharing with major train stations and tourist sites to ensure safe and convenient holiday travel.
Waterway transportation has also been busy, with an estimated 1.68 million passenger trips expected nationwide on Thursday, a 20.52 percent increase compared with the same day last year.
In terms of civil aviation, an estimated 2.45 million air passenger trips were expected on Thursday, with 19,390 flights scheduled to operate across the country.
China's transportation networks continue to see surging traveler trips on 2nd day of National Day holiday
