China ready to continue to strengthen economic, trade cooperation with EU: spokesperson

China is willing to continue to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with the European Union (EU) and hopes that the EU will firmly honor its commitment to openness, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Mao made the remarks in response to a media query concerning the 18th Europe-China Business and Technology Cooperation Fair in Chengdu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province, which concluded on Friday.

"Since 2002, a total of 18 Europe-China fairs have been held, attracting the participation of over 12,000 Chinese and European companies and reaching over 3,300 tentative cooperation deals. The fair is one of the largest investment, trade, innovation and cooperation platforms between China and Europe, with the most extensive participation from both EU member states and EU businesses," said Mao. 

"China and the EU are highly complementary economically with deep convergence of interests. Economic and trade cooperation provides the anchor of China-EU relations. Over the past 50 years since the establishment of China-EU diplomatic ties, annual bilateral trade has grown from 2.4 billion U.S. dollars to more than 780 billion U.S. dollars, and the stock of two-way investment has jumped to over 270 billion U.S. dollars. So far, nationals of 25 EU member states can travel to China visa-free. The China Railway Express has run nearly 120,000 trips, reaching more than 200 cities in 26 European countries. The respective strengths of China and the EU enabled mutual benefit and delivered tangibly to people of both sides. We stand ready to continue stepping up economic and trade cooperation with the EU, and promoting the sound and steady development of China-EU relations. We also hope the EU can honor its commitment to openness and seize the important opportunities offered by China's development," she said.

China ready to continue to strengthen economic, trade cooperation with EU: spokesperson

A total of 297.665 million inter-regional passenger trips nationwide were recorded on Saturday, the second day of the five-day May Day holiday this year, transport authorities said on Sunday.

The figure represents a 1.7 percent increase from the same day last year and a 11.8 percent decline from Friday, the first day of the break.

Railway passenger trips rose 1.2 percent from a year ago to 19.781 million, 20.4 percent down the previous day and up 1.2 percent year on year.

A total of 273.86 million road trips were reported on the day, an increase of 1.8 percent year on year, and 11.2 percent less from the previous day.

Among them, commercial passenger trips reached 39.40 million, an increase of 14.9 percent year on year, while non-commercial passenger trips reached 234.46 million, roughly the same as the previous year.

The waterways handled 2.096 million trips, marking a 1.3 percent decline year on year.

The civil aviation passenger trips stood at 1.928 million, down 11 percent from the previous year.

China's postal sector collected 474 million parcels, up 6.3 percent from the previous day, and delivered 493 million parcels, down 4.6 percent from the previous day.

The May Day holiday, running from May 1 to 5, is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. During this time, millions of Chinese passengers hit the road to visit family or go traveling.

Holiday Day 2 sees 297.665 mln passenger trips