Beijing tourism booms in holiday week

China’s National Tourism Administration estimated that more than 750 million Chinese would be on the move between October 1 and 7, which is half of the nation’s population.

Around 10.8 million railway passenger trips were made on Monday, and the number of travelers was expected to be higher on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the China Railway Corp, which scheduled an extra 315 trains on Monday to meet the surge in demand.

If you think holiday traffic is bad in your city spare a thought for the residents of Beijing where even 50-lane highways become carparks when locals return to the smog after a long weekend away.

Traffic advisories were also announced by the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, who warned of heavy traffic particularly on the last two days of the holiday.

The figure marks a 6.1 year-on-year increase.

Every spring, 130 million migrant workers journey from China’s cities to their home villages for the New Year holiday.

The China Tourism Academy has said that, over the course of the week, over 532 million domestic trips are expected to be made.

As is now customary during vacations, toll fees on China’s highways were waived for the holiday period, contributing to gridlock on roads out of major cities and to tourist sites at the start of the holiday.

“Don’t go to famous places, and don’t go far, unless you are traveling to places like South Africa”, she advised. “It’s not just the traffic, but also the crowds and the tourist traps”, said 32-year-old Liu Xin from Beijing.

A few people simply avoided the crowds by deciding not to travel – one reason why China’s movie box office continued the spectacular performance that has seen it grow by 50 percent year-on-year, making it the world’s second largest.

And with China having introduced new rules – including an official blacklist – to curb bad behavior by tourists following repeated complaints about the behavior of a few Chinese travelers both at home and overseas, several areas stepped up controls.