BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) — China’s domestic travel sector continued its upward momentum during the 2026 Qingming Festival three-day holiday, with total passenger trips nationwide surpassing 845 million, a 6% increase compared to the same holiday period last year, China’s Ministry of Transport announced Monday.
The official data puts the average daily passenger trip volume at 281.79 million across all transport modes. Breaking down the figures by sector, road travel remained the dominant choice for holiday travelers, accounting for 778.45 million trips, a 5.8% annual rise. Rail travel saw stronger growth of 8.2% year-on-year, hitting 57.68 million total trips. Waterway transport recorded a nearly 10% annual jump, handling approximately 3.7 million passenger journeys, while civil aviation was the only outlier, reporting a slight 1.3% dip to 5.5 million trips.
Industry analysts attribute this robust travel boom to a unique overlapping scheduling factor: the three-day Qingming Festival coincided with spring break for primary and secondary school students in most Chinese regions, creating ideal conditions for multi-day family and parent-child leisure trips.
On the first day of the holiday Saturday, national expressway vehicle traffic volume crossed the 62.67 million mark, with more than 14 million of those vehicles being new energy cars. This surge in self-drive travel has translated into double-digit spending growth across tourism-related sectors including scenic area tickets, accommodation and car rentals.
Beyond leisure travel, the two core travel motives for the Qingming Festival — a traditional Chinese occasion for ancestor veneration — also contributed to widespread economic activity across the country. Many travelers returned to their hometowns to conduct tomb-sweeping rituals, while growing popularity of rural spring getaways drove consumer activity in less developed rural regions, helping extend holiday consumption outward from major urban centers to small towns and villages across China.
To support the high travel flow and ensure a safe, seamless experience for all travelers, national transportation authorities retained the longstanding policy of exempting expressway tolls for passenger vehicles with seven seats or fewer throughout the holiday. Regulators also rolled out targeted adjustment measures to reduce congestion on high-traffic highway sections, and expanded EV charging capacity and services at expressway service areas to meet the growing demand from new energy vehicle owners.
Local transportation departments across the country supplemented national measures by adding extra transport capacity on key routes, and extended operating hours for public transport services surrounding major travel hubs, including popular scenic destinations and public cemeteries.