China sees return travel rush on final day of mid-autumn holiday

China has seen a peak in return trips on Sunday, the final day of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, as millions hit the roads and waterways, particularly in major populous city clusters.

According to the latest real-time data from the road network center at the Ministry of Transport, the country’s expressway network is expected to register an average daily traffic volume of around 41 million vehicles during the holiday period.

The national road system has entered a phase of steady growth in return traffic flows, with volumes building up progressively through the final day.

Traffic pressure is most acute on inbound corridors of four key city clusters: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

Major trunk expressways, including the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Beijing-Shanghai, Shenyang-Haikou and Shanghai-Chongqing routes, are recording heavy inbound traffic as vehicles stream back from surrounding areas into core urban centers.

The heaviest congestion is concentrated at urban ring roads, expressway entry ramps and key interchanges. Transport authorities have reminded drivers to reduce speed and maintain safe following distances.

Roads surrounding popular tourist attractions are also seeing rising traffic volumes as holidaymakers wrap up their visits and depart for home.

Local transport departments set up diversion and guidance signs at the exits of major scenic areas to help vehicles rejoin the expressways in an orderly manner, advising drivers to refuel or recharge at service areas rather than stopping on emergency lanes.

On waterways, transport services have been running at high capacity to meet holiday demand. In the Zhenjiang section of the Yangtze River, 18 ferry routes and one riverside cruise route along the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze main waterway operated more than 4,600 voyages in the first two days of the holiday, carrying over 155,000 passengers and 69,000 vehicles.

For the entire Mid-Autumn holiday period, total voyages are projected to top 7,000, with passenger volume exceeding 233,000 and vehicle volume surpassing 102,000.

To ensure safe and smooth travel, maritime authorities have stepped up traffic management, real-time information alerts and navigation assistance services in key ferry waters.

Patrol vessels are stationed on-site during peak hours and at night to fully safeguard the lives and property of river-crossing passengers.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with a history dating back more than 2,000 years, is drawing growing interest from Americans, particularly through social media, and continues to serve as a strong bridge for cultural exchange between China and the United States.

Jin Guanyuan, who founded his own acupuncture clinic in the United States and has practiced there for over 30 years, has written numerous books and spoken at lectures in both countries advocating for TCM.

During the course of his career, he has witnessed significant changes in American attitudes toward the practice.

“When I first came to the U.S. about 37 years ago, most Americans had never tried acupuncture. With every new patient, we had to spend a lot of time explaining what acupuncture was. But things are different now. Most Americans who come to us already know about acupuncture. Now, they ask, ‘Can you help with my condition?’ The way they ask the question reflects how their understanding has changed,” Jin said.

For Abram Ojure, founder of New England Integrated Health, the evolving perspectives of young Americans have been evident through his work with college students at MIT and Tufts University.

“We are usually seeing students for the first time, like it’s their first experience with acupuncture. These are young people from some of the leading institutions in the world. We also see patients from Harvard — it’s like these students are going to go on and do things in their communities wherever they land professionally. And they already have this idea of using TCM as a part of their health care,” Ojure said.

While American practitioners are seeing growing acceptance at home, young Chinese researchers are also thinking about how to build on that momentum and deepen understanding of TCM abroad.

Yi Jingyan, a PhD student studying integrated cancer treatments with TCM in Beijing, hopes growing interest among Americans might lead to greater communication between Western and Chinese medicine.

“A lot of young people overseas, they first discover TCM through social media. So we can use the same platforms to show a fuller and more realistic picture of TCM. I mean, not only Guasha, acupuncture or herbal tea, but maybe the real patient stories, the clinical practice or the scientific research evidence,” she said.

While TCM may be a relatively new concept for many Americans, it is a medical practice with thousands of years of development for Chinese people. Western medicine, too, carries valuable knowledge — its own traditions, history and technology — that can benefit people and improve health worldwide.

At Mulan Women’s Health Clinic in Beijing, which has served women for years, clinic head Yang Qi has worked to show how technology can be incorporated into TCM practice.

“Pulse-taking and tongue examination are traditional diagnostic methods in TCM. They give us more of a directional judgment. I can use these traditional TCM diagnostic methods to guide my treatment, while using modern Western medical equipment to evaluate my treatment results. So the integration of Chinese and Western medicine involves, on the one hand, combining treatment methods and diagnostic methods. On the other hand, we also draw on a lot of the wisdom of modern medicine,” Yang said.

As connections between people in the U.S. and China continue to grow, both online and offline, both countries are benefiting from the sharing of knowledge and wellness practices.