NEWS//May Day travel (updated May 6)

If you think Thanksgiving and Christmas travel is challenging, consider traveling this weekend in China.

It's May Day weekend in China. May Day is an important holiday in China -- and many other countries -- because it is their Labor Day. It is one of China's Golden Week holidays: a five-day vacation from work.

As COVID restrictions ease in China, Chinese are traveling to escape their pandemic-weariness.

• China's Ministry of Transport predicts 265 million passenger trips during the holiday. 

• It expects highway trips will break records with over 60 million vehicles traveling over the weekend.

• Rental car reservations have risen by 126% compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

• 106 million passenger trips are anticipated to be made by rail. This is an increase of 0.8% over 2019.

• 70% of tourists are planning to leave their provinces.

• China Eastern Airlines says its average daily flight volume will exceed 2,700, compared to 2,650 in the same period of 2019. 

"Long holiday, or the golden week, has always been a hot season for consumption in retail and catering businesses," says Jiang Yiyi, professor of the leisure sports and tourism school of Beijing Sport University. "The peak in the coming May Day holidays is expected not only because of the effective containment of the pandemic, but also fast economic growth that will allow people to afford more expensive long-distance travel."

UPDATE (May 6): China saw a total of 230 million domestic tourist trips during the five-day May Day holiday, up 119.7 percent from last year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on May 5. Source

 Sources: Global Times, ECNS, Xinhuanet, WWD