Big traffic delays in China as millions head out for longer golden week break
More travellers join the holiday crush as an extra day is added to the annual holiday season
Tens of millions of Chinese travellers hit the road and rails on Sunday, leading to train delays and traffic jams on the first day of the extended national golden week public holiday.
An extra day has been added to annual week-long National Day break because the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on October 4 this year.
As a result, Chinese travellers are expected to make about 710 million trips to domestic destinations over the break, a 10 per cent increase on last year’s total, according to the China Tourism Academy, a government think tank.
The holidaymakers were expected to spend a combined 590 billion yuan (US$88.6 billion), 12 per cent more than at the same time last year, the think tank said. About 14 per cent of domestic tourism spending occurs during the National Day break.
The mass movement, second in scale only to the Lunar New Year exodus, is again putting the transport system under great pressure.