China's railways are expected to handle 90.5 million passenger trips during the five-day Qingming Festival travel rush starting Friday, according to the national railway operator.
The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, falls on April 5 this year. It is a traditional Chinese festival for honoring the deceased and paying tribute to ancestors. The holiday also provides a short break for Chinese to engage in outdoor activities and sightseeing. This year's festival coincides with primary and secondary school spring breaks in many Chinese cities, extending the travel period for the tourism market.
Primary and secondary schools in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and other provinces have scheduled a three-day spring break that, when combined with the Qingming Festival holiday, amounts to a six-day vacation.
To cope with the passenger surge, railway authorities have arranged high-speed sleeper trains on busy routes like Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Shanghai, and Beijing-Harbin, planning to run more than 13,000 such trains on average each day. Additional temporary trains have also been added.
Holiday traffic volume on expressways could also surpass 61 million vehicles per day, up about 3 percent year on year.
Traffic peaks are expected on Saturday, the first day of the three-day holiday, when expressways across the country may see an average daily volume of around 64.5 million vehicles.
Around 23 percent of road trips will be made by new energy vehicles, with the daily average number of such vehicles on road reaching 14 million, a 29 percent rise from the same period last year.
More than 90 percent of expressway service areas across the country have set up fast charging stations for NEVs.
Waterway passenger trips will increase by 13.6 percent to 4.035 million during the holiday period, according to data from China Maritime Safety Administration.
90.5 mln railway passenger trips expected for Qingming holiday
