Spring travel booms with nearly 300mn trips on Ching Ming Festival in China

Domestic travel surged in China as nearly 300 million cross-regional trips were made on the first day of the Ching Ming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) holiday – a 2.7 percent jump from last year.

With spring breaks overlapping the holiday period, the Ministry of Transport reported on Saturday (Apr 4) that over 270 million of those travelers hit the roads, marking a year-on-year increase of 2.3 percent.

Among travelers, more than 233 million rode in private cars on expressways and major highways, while another 37.7 million took commercial buses.

Notably, railways carried over 21 million passengers, while waterways served around 1.35 million, representing a 9 percent and 11.7 percent increase respectively.

Meanwhile, air travel was expected to dip 13.4 percent from last year to about 1.92 million trips.

Crowds at scenic spots and high-speed rail stations

Popular attractions in major cities including Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou were reportedly packed, while major high-speed rail stations like Shenzhen North and Nanjingnan(Nanjing South) saw massive crowds. 

Some highways around Shenzhen were already clogged a day before the holiday, with travelers joking online that the roads had turned into “open-air parking lots.”

To cope with the surge in passengers, Shenzhen authorities have reportedly added 217 overnight trains, mainly serving popular cities such as Shantou, Foshan, Zhanjiang, Xiamen, and Changsha.

Increased family travel

This year’s holiday travel is heavily themed around spring outings and flower viewing, with family travel seeing a noticeable rise.

Data from travel platforms showed that families with children made up nearly 25 percent of all travelers during this holiday—significantly higher than previous years. 

Educational tours, museum visits, and seaside getaways were particuarly popular, with over 60 percent of families opting for a four-to-five day trip.

Increased bookings at theme parks — including Shanghai Disney Resort, Zhuhai Chimelong International Ocean Resort, Guangzhou Chimelong Resort, and Universal Beijing Resort — as well as at zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and science centers were also reported.