China's transportation system gears up for upcoming holiday season

China's transportation network is gearing up for a massive wave of passenger traffic as the closely spaced Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approach, with authorities predicting shifts in travel patterns and a historic peak on the horizon.

Briefing reporters at a State Council Information Office press conference on Thursday, the Ministry of Transport outlined comprehensive forecasts for the upcoming dual holiday period, which features a gap of just three working days between the two breaks.

According to the projections, the Mid-Autumn Festival will see passenger volumes experience a modest increase compared to normal daily averages, with total cross-regional personnel flows expected to reach 650 million.

Travel during this shorter three-day break will primarily consist of family reunions, home visits, and short-haul trips to suburban and rural destinations near major cities.

Passengers flows during the following National Day holiday are expected to operate at a high level with steady growth, matching last year's massive figures overall while setting a potential new historical record for single-day volume on the very first day of the week-long break.

"The seven-day National Day holiday is expected to see 2.13 billion passenger trips, averaging 300 million trips per day. On the first day of the National Day holiday, passenger trips will reach 340 million. This will be dominated by road travel, especially self-driving trips, which are expected to account for more than 90 percent of road travel. A relatively large number of new energy vehicles will hit the road," said Li Yang, vice minister of transport.

The ministry projects that daily average traffic for new energy vehicles on expressways will hit approximately 16.4 million vehicles, marking a 32.7 percent surge from the previous year.

Railway and civil aviation sectors are anticipated to post upticks in traffic, with daily average passenger volumes projected to grow by roughly 1.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, the festival falls on Friday, and the public holiday lasts three days through Sunday.

The 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.

Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond yield temporarily spiked to 3.055 percent on Wednesday, the first trading day after the country's five-day Silver Week holiday period.

According to public broadcaster NHK, the 10-year government bond yield, a key barometer of long-term interest rates, reached its highest level since September 1996.

Bond prices and yields maintain an inverse relationship. As bond yields rise, bond prices fall, and conversely, when yields decline, bond prices rise.

Higher bond yields will put further pressure on Japan's debt-servicing costs. According to the International Monetary Fund, Japan has the highest public debt ratio among advanced economies, at about 207 percent of its gross domestic product. That is roughly double the average of the Group of Seven economies.