China has continued to see a record number of travelers across the country as the five-day May Day holiday nears its end. As return passenger flow increased on Tuesday, the fourth day of the holiday, China Railway estimated that the number of daily trips will reach 15.2 million, while 1,361 additional passenger trains will be put into service to meet demand.
A total of 13.74 million trips were made via railway on Monday, up by 3.2 percent compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
Apart from transport data, hotel bookings, deliveries and box office sales also indicate that China’s first long break under largely COVID-19-free conditions has indeed unleashed Chinese people’s pent-up enthusiasm for both travel and consumption.
Tourist sites across China are packed with travelers, while topics related to holiday travel are some of the most commonly searched phrases on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
“There are people everywhere, so to be honest the experience is not that ideal, but it still feels good to go out and walk around since it seems like life is back to normal,” a Beijing-based white-collar worker who had traveled to Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province during the holiday, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
According to a consumption report from Chinese online food delivery platform Ele.me, the volume of takeaway orders increased significantly during the first three days of the holiday, reaching its highest point in five years. In areas such as hotels and scenic spots, the demand for take-out has doubled, indicating that holiday consumption is experiencing an “explosive recovery.”
This “explosive recovery” in consumption is also reflected offline. Ele.me data shows that the consumption of offline life services has increased nearly four times year-on-year. Among them, the consumption of entertainment products has increased by more than 10 times compared with the same time last year.
China’s May Day box office has exceeded 1.3 billion yuan ($200.81 million) as of noon Tuesday, the fourth day of the holiday, ticketing platform Maoyan showed on Tuesday. In 2019, the total box office during the holiday was 1.5 billion yuan.
Aerial photo taken on May 2, 2021 shows visitors at Shenxianju scenic area in Taizhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province. Sunday marks the second day of China’s five-day May Day holiday. (Photo by Wang Huabin/Xinhua)
