China sees peak passenger flow on 1st day of Duanwu Festival holiday

China experienced peak passenger traffic on Friday, the first day of the three-day Duanwu Festival break, with authorities taking measures to increase transportation capacity.

The Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, falls on Friday this year. The public holiday for the festival runs from Friday to Sunday.

Data from the transportation authority showed that on Friday, the country reported 235 million cross-regional passenger trips, an increase of 1.9 percent year on year.

China's railway network is expected to handle over 19.7 million passenger trips on Friday, the highest during the holiday.

To accommodate this travel surge, the transport department has increased bus and taxi capacities based on passenger flow, and arranged shuttle services between major scenic areas and rail stations.

The traffic volume on expressways in China is also likely to peak at roughly 44.2 million vehicles trips on Friday.

Due to continuous rainfall, transportation authorities in provincial-level regions including Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi have activated emergency response and ramped up road patrol efforts to ensure road safety.

Friday also saw busy air travel among four major urban clusters in China, namely Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

Japan's core consumer prices increased 1.4 percent in May from a year earlier, growing for the 57th consecutive month, government data showed Friday.

The increase in the core consumer price index (CPI), excluding volatile fresh food costs, followed a 1.4 percent gain in April, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Core-core CPI, which strips away both energy and fresh food to reflect underlying price trends, rose 1.8 percent in May.

Energy costs fell 2.5 percent on year, after a 3.9 percent drop in April, with gasoline prices plunging 7 percent and electricity bills declining 2.4 percent.

Prices for food, excluding fresh items, were up 3.5 percent in the reporting month, slowing from a 4.1 percent rise in April.