China's 16-day railway transport period for the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday officially kicked off on Wednesday and will run through October 8. As the holiday approaches, the China Railway Lanzhou Bureau Group is expected to handle 5 million passenger trips during the period, with the Yinchuan Railway Station in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region alone forecast to see 878,600 passenger trips. The peak of passenger flow is expected to occur on Oct 1, the first day of this year's week-long National Day holiday.
According to the Lanzhou railway authorities, holiday travel will be dominated by tourism and family visits, with popular destinations including Shanghai, Guangdong, Beijing, Shaanxi and Sichuan.
To meet the surge in demand, the railway operators will add temporary passenger trains and overnight high-speed rail services to accommodate travelers as much as possible.
As of 08:00 Wednesday, the 12306 railway ticketing platform had sold a total of 96.21 million tickets for the holiday travel period.
According to advance ticket sales, passenger flows are concentrated on routes such as Beijing to Zhengzhou, Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou to Nanning, Guangzhou to Guigang, Beijing to Shanghai, Beijing to Taiyuan, Beijing to Shenyang, Beijing to Xi'an, and Beijing to Jinan.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Across the country, people mark the occasion by gathering to gaze at the moon, eat mooncakes, and light colorful lanterns. This year, the festival falls on Friday.
China's National Day holiday, typically an annual seven-day public holiday from Oct 1 to Oct 7, is known as the Golden Week, during which large numbers of Chinese people travel across the country.
China's 16-day railway transport for 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day holiday begins
