Beijing – On the first day of China’s weeklong National Day holiday, the country recorded a historic high in daily railway passenger trips, signaling robust travel activity across the nation.
According to Namibia Press Agency, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) reported that 21.45 million railway trips were made on Tuesday, setting a new record for the highest number of daily railway passenger trips. The figure is expected to decrease slightly to 18.2 million on Wednesday. Over the course of the 10-day holiday travel rush, spanning from September 29 to October 8, the railway network is anticipated to handle approximately 175 million passenger trips. This surge is largely driven by tourists, family reunions, and students traveling across the country.
Further underscoring China’s extensive railway development, the total length of operational rail tracks in the country exceeded 160,000 kilometers as of September 2024, following the inauguration of a new rail section in Guangdong Province. Additionally, China’s high-speed railway (HSR) network, the largest globally, has reached an operational mileage of 46,000 kilometers, surpassing the combined total of all other countries’ HSR networks. Presently, China’s railway network covers 99 percent of cities with populations exceeding 200,000, while the HSR connects 96 percent of cities with over 500,000 residents.