High-speed rail, blue sky and charging piles
Understand the iteration code behind the Golden Week travel samples
At 6 a.m. on October 1, Beijing citizen Zhang Lei stuffed a tent, a folding chair and a box of snacks into the trunk and drove onto the Beijing-Tibet Expressway with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. They plan to spend five days on a self-driving camping trip from Beijing to the Ulanhada volcanoes in Inner Mongolia. "The children want to see volcanoes, and we don't want to get together in big cities. We just drive a new car and play while walking." The "new car" Zhang Lei mentioned is a pure electric SUV that was just replaced this year.
A few hours later, at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, 26-year-old programmer Li Wei dragged his suitcase onto the high-speed train bound for Kunming. He is going to use his eight-day vacation to hike northwest Yunnan, and his first ticket and the caption "Let's go now" have been posted on WeChat Moments.
The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays in 2026 are only three days apart, and there is strong demand for travel, family visits and other travels. Statistics show that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the cross-regional movement of people across society reached 643 million people, and during the seven-day National Day holiday, the cross-regional movement of people across society reached 2.142 billion, with an average of 306 million people per day.
Behind this picture of the world's largest movement of people, the continuous improvement of transportation infrastructure, the in-depth empowerment of smart technology, and the accelerated popularization of green travel methods jointly outline the vitality and resilience of "Mobile China".
Fly further and provide more detailed services
During this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, civil aviation travel showed a trend of “increasing volume and price”. Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China shows that during the National Day holiday, civil aviation across the country transported a total of 16.92 million passengers, with an average of 2.42 million passengers per day, and a total of 134,000 flights were guaranteed. From the perspective of travel structure, long-term in-depth travel has become a prominent feature of holiday civil aviation travel.
According to the big data of Hanglu Zongheng, among the domestic routes with a flight distance of more than 2,000 kilometers, 4 routes involve Urumqi and 3 routes involve Kunming. The popularity of civil aviation travel in the western region has increased significantly. The number of civil aviation passengers going to Mangshi increased by more than 40% year-on-year, the number of passengers going to Dali and Baoshan both increased by about 30% year-on-year, and plateau destinations such as Nyingchi and Shigatse also increased by more than 10%, showing a new trend of "saying goodbye to big cities and looking for autumn in small towns".
In response to the demand-side enthusiasm, major aviation hubs continue to upgrade their service capabilities. China Eastern Airlines operated 837 passenger aircraft during the holidays, with an average of 3,120 flights per day. From September 25 to October 7, the total number of flights performed exceeded 39,000, accompanying more than 5.8 million passengers. China Southern Airlines Group plans to operate more than 27,000 flights, and arranges wide-body aircraft to fly nearly 760 flights on popular routes from the Guangzhou hub to Chengdu, Urumqi, etc., with approximately 240,000 seats.
On the occasion of its seventh anniversary of operation, Beijing Daxing Airport launched the industry's first international check-in "early arrival and check-in" service, breaking the practice of "dedicated check-in at dedicated counters" for international flights for many years. It also launched a one-day early check-in service for domestic flights to achieve "tomorrow's flight can be handled today". Beijing Capital Airport has launched an international version of the general service page. Foreign passengers can easily use functions such as entry card filling, flight inquiry, and airport transportation by scanning the QR code on their mobile phones. It also issues transit rights coupons to transit passengers that can be used at more than 170 stores in the terminal.
The international aviation market is also active. During the National Day, civil aviation carried out more than 14,000 international flights, and the number of general aviation flights in South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries has exceeded the 2019 level. The total departure time of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou hubs accounted for 53.7%, further consolidating its status as an international aviation hub. From "walking well" to "going well", the performance of the civil aviation industry during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays reflects the transformation logic of China's air transport system from scale expansion to quality improvement.
Railway transportation capacity and intelligent dual-line improvement
The performance of railways during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays is particularly impressive. During the seven-day National Day holiday, railways across the country carried a total of 152 million passengers, with many indicators hitting record highs.
On October 1, the number of railway passengers across the country reached 25.204 million, setting a record high in single-day passenger traffic. Six out of the seven days of the holiday saw single-day passenger flows exceeding 20 million. Guangzhou South Railway Station had 1.049 million passenger arrivals and departures on October 1, becoming the first national railway station to have more than one million passenger arrivals and departures in a single day. It operated 1,590 trains that day, with an average of 54 seconds between trains.
On the front line of engineering construction, the integration of wisdom and green has also become a trend. In order to better ensure the travel of passengers during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, the State Railway Taiyuan Bureau Group Yuci Station recently held a special construction training class. More than 160 management and operating personnel participated in the training, including more than 80 young employees 35 years old and below. Focusing on construction organization safety, accident cases and other content, the young workers were helped to make up for business shortcomings and play the role of young force and commando team.
On October 9, after 3 years and 10 months of reconstruction and expansion, the new station building of Zhejiang Yiwu Station was opened. The station size was upgraded from 6 stations and 15 lines to 11 stations and 27 lines, becoming the second largest railway passenger transportation hub in Zhejiang. After the map adjustment on October 11, the number of passenger trains handled increased from 226 to 272.
The station is the first in the country to be built above a continuously operating line, and traffic will not be interrupted during construction. The construction team of China Railway Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. adopted the "divided field zoning and staged switching" plan to complete key processes within the shortest driving gap of 4 minutes. The new station integrates smart and green technologies, and the building automation system realizes AI intelligent control. Distributed photovoltaics generate approximately 5.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 4,856 tons annually. The station has north and south entrance passages, equipped with translators and other equipment, bilingual signs in Chinese and English, and enables seamless transfers between railways, urban rail transit, buses, social vehicles, online ride-hailing and other transportation modes.
On the construction front line of Xiamen Metro Line 6, Deng Zhihao, director of the BIM technology position at China Railway 18th Bureau No. 1 Company, integrated technologies such as 3D modeling, construction simulation and intelligent perception into construction organization and risk management and control, using digital means to provide support for the construction of complex projects.
During the construction of the Jitong section of Xiamen Metro Line 6, faced with the construction task of shield tunnels passing through sensitive building groups, Deng Zhihao assisted the project in applying the BIM+GIS twin platform to achieve precise positioning of shield tunneling and simultaneous access to ground and underground sensor data. His research result "Digital Intelligence Integration Empowers Urban Rail Transit Engineering Construction under Complex and Sensitive Conditions" won the first-class achievement in the 10th China Construction Engineering BIM Competition of the China Construction Association.
In terms of green construction, during the National Day, China Railway Construction Port and Navigation Bureau's Guanghui Expressway renovation and expansion TJ4 project innovatively launched the "photovoltaic + mobile energy storage" model and laid distributed photovoltaics on the roof of the back-end processing plant, generating an average annual power of 825,800 kilowatt-hours. The comprehensive electricity cost dropped by more than 30% compared with traditional diesel power generation. During the construction period, it is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 638 tons.
The project also adopts an energy storage equipment leasing model to avoid a large amount of capital occupation and idle equipment. Relying on the smart energy management and control platform, operation and maintenance personnel can remotely monitor the status of equipment and achieve intelligent scheduling and precise maintenance. The system can also automatically adapt the power according to the construction electricity load, completely bidding farewell to the inefficiency dilemma of traditional generators "big horses and small carts". Green power supply not only changes the appearance of construction sites, but also provides a replicable and scalable new solution for energy supply at scattered work sites in transportation infrastructure.
Green travel is accelerating its integration into long-distance scenarios
Highway travel remains the main form of travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. During the National Day holiday, the number of people traveling on highways reached 1.961 billion. The implementation of the free passage policy for passenger cars with less than 7 seats on highways has further stimulated enthusiasm for self-driving travel.
Growing in tandem with the scale of travel is the accelerated popularity of new energy vehicles. Data from the Ministry of Transport shows that the number of new energy vehicle trips during the National Day holiday reached 1.8 times the daily level.
Data from the National Energy Administration shows that during the National Day holiday, new energy vehicles were charged a total of 6.711 million times on expressways, with a charging capacity of 163 million kilowatt hours, and the average daily charging capacity increased by 51.42% year-on-year. In the three days before the holiday, the average daily number of charging times for new energy vehicles on highways across the country reached 989,500, an increase of 48.41% over the same period last year. Data from the State Grid Smart Internet of Vehicles platform shows that on average, more than 3,000 new energy vehicles were charged per minute during the holidays.
Behind this growth is the rapid improvement of charging infrastructure. More than 11,000 high-power charging facilities have been added in high-speed service areas across the country, equivalent to the previous cumulative number. The city's expressway service areas in Beijing have achieved full coverage of super charging piles, with a maximum power of 600 kilowatts. Some models can complete charging in as little as 15 minutes. Fully liquid-cooled supercharging stations have been put into operation in high-speed service areas in Hunan, Henan and other places, and the energy recharging speed can reach as fast as “1 km per second”. The charging network for electric heavy trucks is also continuing to intensify. Zibo, Shandong Province is equipped with 12 800-kilowatt high-power liquid-cooled supercharging piles. The transportation cost per kilometer of electric heavy trucks is nearly 60% lower than that of traditional diesel heavy trucks.
From a consumer perspective, the cultural tourism market performed strongly during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. According to estimates from the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were 826 million domestic trips across the country during the seven-day National Day holiday, and the total domestic travel expenditure was 738.375 billion yuan, an average daily increase of 6.3% and 4.3% respectively year-on-year on a comparable basis. Red tourism is very popular, with 40% of tourists visiting revolutionary venues, watching flag-raising ceremonies, patriotic performances and other activities. The nighttime cultural and tourism economy is booming, and the cumulative nighttime passenger flow in the national-level nighttime culture and tourism consumption cluster reached 107 million, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%. Over 310 million yuan in consumer subsidies were distributed across various regions, and the inbound tourism market was active. The country received a total of 2.983 million inbound tourists.
From a more macro perspective, behind the travel data during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays is the dual upgrade of China's transportation infrastructure and travel consumption structure. The extension of high-speed rail networks to more remote areas makes it possible to "see autumn in small towns"; the coordinated development of new energy vehicles and charging networks allows green travel to expand from urban commuting to inter-provincial long distances; the in-depth application of smart technology allows travel services to move from "standardized" to "personalized". Behind the 2.78 billion trips is a concentrated test of the achievements in building a transportation power and a vivid portrayal of the continued release of domestic demand potential. When every departure is more convenient, efficient and green, the vitality of "Mobile China" will have the most solid foundation.
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Zhenqi
