China's summer rail travel season tops 220 mln passenger trips so far

China's railway network has entered the peak summer travel season, with passenger trips surpassing 220 million as of Thursday, according to official data released on Friday.

The annual summer travel rush began on July 1. Rail operators across the country are expanding capacity to meet surging demand driven by tourism, student travel and family visits.

At Beijing Chaoyang Railway Station, a major hub for services to northeast China, daily passenger volume has reached about twice the normal level. To cope with the surge, the station has activated fast-track security checkpoints, deployed additional staff to guide passengers and optimized transfer routes to reduce waiting times.

"Since the summer travel season began, tourist travel has grown significantly. We have added seven passenger train services each day to popular destinations, including Shenyang, Chifeng, Harbin, Dalian and Changbai Mountain," said Wang Qiang, the station's Party chief.

Railways in the Beijing region handled some 8.83 million passenger trips during the period. Elsewhere, railway operators have also increased train services to meet growing demand.

In the wake of the opening of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway, authorities have scheduled 58 additional high-speed train services linking the tourist city of Xi'an with destinations including Nanyang, Hankou and Chongqing, strengthening connections between the country's northwest, central, southern and southwestern regions.

A new high-speed service between the revolutionary cities of Yan'an and Shaoshan has also been launched, creating a new route for red tourism, which refers to visits to sites and places associated with China's revolutionary history.

Railway authorities have added overnight high-speed trains on Fridays and Sundays for major routes, including the Shanghai-Kunming and Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railways, allowing passengers to depart in the evening and arrive the following morning.

The 62-day summer travel season is scheduled to run from July 1 to Aug 31, with railways expected to handle 1.01 billion passenger trips, averaging 16.29 million per day.

China's summer rail travel season tops 220 mln passenger trips so far

The 2026 Qixi Festival Gala, produced by China Media Group (CMG), got underway at 20:00 Beijing Time on Wednesday, marking the annual celebration of one of China's oldest and most cherished traditional festivals.

The Qixi Festival, also referred to as the Chinese Valentine's Day, falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It dates back more than 2,000 years and was inscribed on China's national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

The festival's enduring romantic association stems from the legends of the cowherd Niulang and the weaver girl Zhinyu, star-crossed lovers separated by the Milky Way who are permitted to meet only once a year when a flock of magpies forms a bridge across the heavens.

In ancient China, young women celebrate the festival by praying to Zhinyu for clever hands and domestic talents. Today, couples usually spend the day by exchanging gifts and many partners choose this auspicious date to register their marriages or hold collective traditional weddings.

This year's gala centered on the motif of a bridge, linking ancient myth with contemporary life.

A travelogue performance themed around the mythological bridge ran through the entire event, which featured songs, dances, traditional operas and ballet.

A highlight of the gala was a micro-film which explores shared Qixi customs between people from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

Among the evening's touching highlights was a short film featuring the enduring romance of 88-year-old Chinese radar technology expert Ben De, recipient of China's 2026 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, and his wife. The award is the nation's highest honor for scientific and technological achievement.

This year's gala centered on co-creation, featuring segments with real couples from across the country to jointly celebrate the millennia-old traditions through contemporary expressions of love.

CMG airs special TV gala to celebrate China's 2,000-year-old love festival