Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong railway sees record travel surge during Qingming holiday

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link handled 86,000 passenger trips from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to the Chinese mainland on Friday, setting a new single-day record amid a surge of northbound travel during the Qingming Festival holiday, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group.

The railway operated 239 passenger trains that day, carrying a total of 119,000 passengers.

The railway line is expected to transport more than 600,000 passengers from Friday to Tuesday, marking a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent and highlighting the strong momentum of mobility.

The strong passenger flow reflects robust enthusiasm among Hong Kong residents for tomb-sweeping, sightseeing and shopping during the Qingming Festival holiday, with the high-speed rail emerging as their preferred mode of travel.

Popular destinations for Hong Kong travelers have expanded beyond Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chaoshan to inland cities such as Chongqing and Guilin.

From morning tea in Shenzhen to concerts in Guangzhou and culinary tours in Chaozhou, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong “one-hour living circle” has evolved from simple shopping trips into a comprehensive experience encompassing catering, accommodation, culture, sports and entertainment, accelerating economic integration between the two regions.

To cope with surging passenger flows, Shenzhen railway authorities have implemented a "daily-adjusted train diagram" scheduling mechanism, operating an average of more than 230 cross-border passenger trains daily to maximize capacity and meet travel demand.

Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong railway sees record travel surge during Qingming holiday

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship