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Though most people still had to work during the weekend leading up to the week-long National Day holiday, domestic transportation departments have already begun to report a mass exodus of travellers.
Most rail tickets to major domestic tourist cities have long been booked up and the railway ministry had to bring in 624 extra passenger trains to meet the huge demand.
The Ministry of Railways predicted that more than 35 million people would travel by train during the holiday, up 1 per cent from last October. The ministry said the peak travelling day looks set to be October 1, National Day, when 3.8 million passengers are expected to take to the trains. Most passengers are tourists or people heading home for family reunions.
The ministry has advised passengers to avoid travelling at the peak periods which run between October 1 to 3 and October 6 to 8, when trains are likely to be over-crowded. For long distance travel and for those who can afford it, air services are the first choice.
Major domestic airlines, including the three biggest carriers - Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines - are bringing in additional aeroplanes to meet peak demand.
Air China meanwhile, decided to use larger aircraft on the popular international routes such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand, thereby increasing seat capacity. For safety reasons China's civil aviation regulator prohibits airlines from operating after midnight.
However, most domestic airlines said the measure would not affect their services, as they would try to meet market demand by increasing daytime flights. It seems there will be an increase in the number of people opting to take short-distance breaks over the upcoming holiday.
For example in Guangdong Province, the number of one-day travelling programmes has overtaken the number of traditional long-distance venues.
(China Daily September 30, 2002)
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