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.

The principles of respect, fairness and reciprocity will play a guiding role in the next stage of China-U.S. relations, as Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on Friday to build a constructive relationship of strategic stability based on the three principles, said a research fellow at China Institute of International Studies on Saturday.

During an interview in Beijing, Ruan Zongze shared his views on the latest characterization of China-U.S. ties.

“Defining and describing the current phase of China-U.S. relations as one of respect, fairness, and reciprocity, I think, reflects the principle of keeping pace with the times. Our description of the relationship is a dynamic summary, so these three words are both a summary of China-U.S. relations and, at the same time, an elevation of them. The connotations of the three words are very rich, and I believe they will play a guiding role for the next stage of the relationship’s development,” said Ruan.

Ruan noted that China has long been exploring how major countries in the new era can find the right way to get along, and that China has been continuously comparing notes with the United States and enriching the relationship with new meaning.

“In fact, we can see this as the further development and vitality of China-U.S. relations. The situation keeps changing, and our descriptions have been adjusted accordingly, but the spirit has always been developed on the basis of emphasizing the ‘respect,’ ‘fairness’ and ‘reciprocity’ between the two sides,” he said.