China's Revenge Travel Explodes... Record 20 Million Railway Passengers on First Day of Labor Day Holiday

Chinese people, freed from strict COVID-19 prevention policies, have started a large-scale "revenge travel" during the five-day Labor Day golden holiday. According to China State Railway Group on the 30th, the number of railway passengers on the first day of the holiday, the previous day, reached a record high of 19,661,000. The number of trains operated also reached a record high at 12,064.

On the 26th, ahead of the five-day Chinese Labor Day Golden Week holiday, Shanghai Hongqiao Station was crowded with people. The Labor Day holiday will continue from the 29th to the 3rd of next month.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The State Railway Group predicts that from April 27 to May 4, an eight-day period, the number of railway passengers will reach 120 million, marking the largest scale ever. This is about a 20% increase compared to the same period in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Local governments also announced travel-related statistics, reporting that the economy is recovering. Beijing announced that 1.84 million tourists visited on the first day of the holiday, double the number from the previous year. The theme park Beijing Universal Studios reportedly welcomed more than 30,000 visitors that day. Guangdong Province and Sichuan Province also announced that 2.21 million and 3.61 million tourists visited respectively, representing increases of 80% and 67% compared to the previous year.

The tourism industry expects this Labor Day holiday to be the largest in over four years. The number of people traveling during the holiday is expected to reach 240 million, and tourism revenue is projected to exceed 120 billion yuan (approximately 23 trillion won).

Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Commerce announced that nationwide major retail and food service sales increased by 21.4% compared to the same period last year on the 29th. The online ticket sales platform Maoyan explained that on the same day, 7.26 million people visited theaters, generating ticket sales revenue of 294 million yuan (approximately 56.9 billion won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.