"Golden Week" in China sees consumption boom

The National Day holiday, dubbed "golden week" by the Chinese, normally runs for seven days. But this year, it was linked with the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival and extended to eight days, lasting from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6. The eight-day holiday kindles people's enthusiasm for travel and leisure activities as China sees a major surge in consumption, demonstrating the potential and resilience of Chinese economy.

SWARMS OF TOURISTS

A daily average of 57.28 million passenger trips were made during the holiday, surging 57.1 percent from the National Day holiday last year. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, the number of passenger trips came in at 458 million, the Ministry of Transport said Saturday.

The total number of cross-border trips topped 11.8 million. Nearly 1.48 million entry-exit trips were made per day on average amid the holiday, representing a 2.9-fold increase compared with the same period in 2022.

HEATED CONSUMPTION

The country's domestic tourism market generated approximately 753.4 billion yuan (about 103.2 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue amid the holiday, representing a year-on-year increase of 129.5 percent and a rise of 1.5 percent from that of the National Day holiday in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

China's box office notched up over 2.7 billion yuan (about 376 million U.S. dollars) in revenue, with some 65.1 million tickets sold.

According to the online platform Meituan, the average daily spending on service retail sales soared 153 percent compared with the same period in 2019, making this year's "golden week" the hottest one in the past five years.

"Holiday travel consumption has rebounded significantly, demonstrating the robust growth resilience of the Chinese economy and its promising development prospects," said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University of China.