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Millions to travel during China's Golden Week holiday

This article is more than 12 months old

BEIJING: Millions of people in China hustled to enjoy their first major national holiday since the country beat its coronavirus outbreak, filling airports and train stations yesterday.

The Golden Week holiday marks the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and sees an astonishing annual movement of people trying to get home or take holidays.

But this year has added significance, with the crowds filling the concourses pointing to a country rebounding from the outbreak and parading the freedom to travel even as rolling lockdowns hit much of the world.

More than 600 million trips will be taken during the eight-day holiday, down 20 per cent from a year ago, country's biggest travel agency Ctrip estimated, but they will still force the state railway to lay on 1,000 extra trains a day.

They are likely to bring much-needed spending to far-flung parts of China. Last year, travellers spent US$9.5 billion (S$13 billion) during the week.

Also, retail sales edged back to growth in August. - AFP

WORLD