China's Labor Day holiday kicked off with a nationwide travel surge on Friday as millions took to trains, highways, ferries, and flights to start their holiday journeys.
Railway authorities estimated 24.8 million passenger trips nationwide on May 1 alone, with 2,070 extra trains added to meet travel demand.
On the highways, the Ministry of Transport projected daily expressway traffic to reach 70 million vehicle trips, the highest single-day figure ever for a Labor Day holiday, with tolls waived from May 1 to May 5 for passenger vehicles carrying no more than seven seats. Notably, nearly 24 percent of the traffic is made up of new energy vehicles.
The Maritime Safety Administration reported an estimated 9.2 million passenger trips during the holiday, up 6.8 percent year on year. Routes across the Qiongzhou Strait and popular city sightseeing cruises would be particularly busy.
On Friday, the Qiongzhou Strait alone was expected to handle 120,000 passenger trips and 31,000 vehicle trips, including 20,000 trips by new energy vehicles, a 60-percent increase over last year. Maritime authorities in Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi have completed special safety checks on 57 ferries and four barge vessels operating during the holiday.
Civil aviation experienced its own travel peak, with passenger flows concentrated among the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, and Chengdu-Chongqing city clusters.
Labor Day holiday sees record high travel flow in China
