The number of railway trips made by Chinese passengers hit 21.45 million on September 29, the first day of the 10-day-long National Day holiday season.
According to a press statement published by Xinhua, the Chinese official press agency, this marks a record-high number of daily railway passenger trips. It adds that the China State Railway Group or China Railway has forecast that the railway network is expected to handle 175 million passenger trips during the 10-day holiday travel rush as tourists, family reunions and students drive the surge in travel.
The railway company says that total length of operational rail tracks in China surpassed 160,000 km in September 2024, with the inauguration of a section linking two cities in south China’s Guangdong Province.
The operating mileage of China’s high-speed railway (HSR) has reached 46,000 km, ranking first in the world and surpassing the combined total of all other countries’ HSR networks, according to China Railway.
The railway network now serves a vast portion of China’s urban areas, covering 99 pc of cities with populations over 200,000, while HSR serves 96 pc of cities with more than 500,000 residents, says the rail company.