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7 Oct, 2015

Golden Week Chinese Travel Hits 750mln, Equal to Half the Population

By Chen Shen

Beijing (People’s Daily Online)  October 06, 2015 – Transportation statistics in China shows that during the “Golden Week” over 750 million Chinese people are expected to use either railway or highway to travel domestically. This figure accounts for half of the population in China.

Forbidden City in Beijing becomes one of the hottest spot for tourists during the National Day Golden Week of 2015.

Chinese Ministry of Transport anticipated some 640 million people use the highway during the seven-day-holiday, with a 6.1 percent increase from last year’s. In the coming two days, over 95 million people are expected to travel on the Chinese highways each day. “Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan, Anhui provinces and some tourist attractions will see the spikes,” said Liu Pengfei, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Transport.

According to China Railway, some 100 million people are using the railway in the “Golden Week”, with a 10 percent increase from last year’s figure. “People are willing to travel. With the development of Chinese railway system, the figure is going up,” said Song Jianguo, Party Secretary at Beijing West Railway Station

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept. 27 is followed directly by the “Golden Week” from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7. With a total of nine-day-holiday, the historic daily passenger loads on Chinese highways and railways have exceeded the figures from this year’s Spring Festival Travel Season.