China railway handles record 24.8m passengers on May Day

BEIJING: China’s railway network handled 24.8 million passengers on May 1, a single-day record, the China State Railway Group said on Saturday.

Another 19.7 million journeys were expected on Saturday, the group wrote in a post on WeChat, with official booking channels racking up sales of 117 million train tickets so far for the May Day holiday period, which runs until Tuesday.

The figures point to strong domestic tourism during the holiday and a potential uptick in consumer spending, which has remained fragile in the world’s second-largest economy since the Covid-19 pandemic.