China reports 20% rise in inter-regional trips on first day of New Year holiday

An aerial drone photo shows tourists visiting Wuma Street in Wenzhou City, East China's Zhejiang province, Jan 1, 2026. People across China celebrated the arrival of 2026 with a wide range of festivities on Thursday, the first day of the year. - Photo: Xinhua

BEIJING: China recorded over 207 million inter-regional passenger trips on the first day of the three-day New Year holiday on Thursday (Jan 1), up 20.3 per cent year on year, data from the Ministry of Transport showed on Friday (Jan 2).

Road travel accounted for the majority of passenger movement with 186.28 million trips -- up 17.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Railway passenger volumes totaled 18.56 million trips, surging 67.9 per cent year on year.

Waterway transport carried 684,000 passengers, which was up 2.9 per cent, while civil aviation handled 1.95 million passenger trips, 10.3 per cent down from that of the first day of last year.

On the same day, China's postal sector collected 451 million parcels and delivered 531 million nationwide, according to official data. - Xinhua