英语新闻｜Travel demand ramps up over double holiday

Travel demand, especially a preference for high-speed rail journeys, saw a strong upsurge during the just-completed combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, with bullet trains attracting some foreign celebrities to experience the concept of“China speed”.

在刚刚结束的中秋国庆双节期间，出游需求尤其是高铁出游的需求显著增加，其中子弹头列车，即高速列车，吸引了不少外国名人前来体验“中国速度”。

This year’s eight-day holiday from Sept 29 saw the Mid-Autumn Festival combined with the National Day holiday.

今年的中秋节和国庆节假期合并，自9月29日起，共八天。

Online travel agency Lvmama said that railway ticket bookings on its platform for the combined holiday soared 67 percent from the same period of 2022. On Thursday — the penultimate day of the eight-day break — Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev was seen taking a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai after he finished as runner-up at the China Open men’s singles final in Beijing on Wednesday.

网上旅行机构驴妈妈旅游网的数据显示，该平台的双节期间的铁路车票预定数量比2022年同时期增长了67%。10月5日是八天假期的倒数第二天，俄罗斯网球运动员丹尼尔·梅德韦杰夫搭乘了北京开往上海的高铁。此前一日，他刚刚于北京获得了中国网球公开赛男单亚军。

“Flight tickets were overpriced during the holiday, so bullet trains were apparently a more affordable choice. Usually, we need to rush to the airport for the check-in and security check at least 90 minutes before departure but we can just arrive at the railway station like five or 10 minutes before the train sets off,” said Li Qijia, a 29-year-old from Beijing who went on a four-day trip with her husband to Anji, Zhejiang province, during the holiday.

Li Qijia来自北京，今年29岁，双节期间同丈夫在浙江省安吉县旅居了四天。她说，“假期的飞机票太贵了，高铁票的价格显然更友好。通常，我们需要在飞机起飞前至少90分钟达到机场，办理登记手续、过安检，现在我们只要在高铁开动前5到10分钟到达火车站就好。”

As the holiday drew to a close on Friday, the railway network experienced a peak in return trips. The latest figures from China Railway Group showed that over 16 million passengers boarded high-speed trains per day since the holiday began, while some 18.8 million holidaymakers are expected to have traveled by bullet train on Friday, the last day of the extended dual holiday.

10月6日，假期临近尾声，铁路系统迎来了返程高峰。中国铁路集团的最新数据显示，自双节假期起，每日高铁乘坐人数超过1600万，假期最后一天单日预计乘坐人数接近1880万。

Travel volume also hit a new high during the holiday. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a report on Friday saying that domestic attractions received around 826 million visits over the break, from Sept 29 to Friday, up 71.3 percent year-on-year. The number marks a growth of 4.1 percent from that in 2019 — just prior to the pandemic.

假期的游客总量也达到了新高。文旅部于6日发布的报告显示，国内景点在9月29日至10月6日双节期间共接待游客8亿2600万人次左右，同比增长71.3%，比疫情前的2019年增长了4.1%。

Tourism-related revenue registered remarkable growth, reaching around 753.4 billion yuan ($103 billion) in eight days, a year-on-year rise of 129.5 percent and a growth of 1.5 percent from that in 2019, the report said.

报道称，旅游相关收入在8天内显著增长，达到了约7534亿元人民币（约合1030亿美元），同比增长129.5％，比2019年增长1.5％。

Travel agencies and industry insiders said that the tourism market saw a good recovery over the holiday and people tended to make more reasonable plans for their days off. Also, long-distance destinations were top choices for travelers during the eight-day break.

旅行社和业内人士表示，在假期期间，旅游市场出现了良好的复苏，人们更倾向于制定更合理的休息计划。此外，远距离目的地成为八天假期旅客的首选。

Domestically, destinations including Chengdu, Sichuan province; Changsha, Hunan province; and Xi’an, Shaanxi province, were particularly favored by travelers for their delicious cuisine and iconic attractions, such as the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an and pandas in Chengdu, according to travel portal Qunar.

根据旅游门户网站去哪儿网的数据，国内目的地四川成都、湖南长沙和陕西西安因其美食和标志性景点而受到旅客青睐，如西安的兵马俑和成都的大熊猫。

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was also in the spotlight thanks to the ongoing 19th Asian Games. Online travel service provider Fliggy said hotel bookings in Hangzhou and five other host cities in Zhejiang — Ningbo, Jinhua, Huzhou, Wenzhou and Shaoxing — rose by over 60 percent during the holiday compared with the same period in 2019.

浙江杭州也因正在举办的第19届亚洲运动会而备受关注。在线旅游服务提供商飞猪表示，在杭州和浙江的其他五个主办城市，宁波、金华、湖州、温州和绍兴，假期期间的酒店预订与2019年同期相比增长了超过60％。

Outbound tourism also performed well during the holiday. Travel portal Tuniu said Hong Kong and Macao remained popular on its platform during the holiday and Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor attracted over 430,000 people to watch a fireworks show on Sunday.

境外旅游在假期期间也十分火爆。旅游门户网站途牛表示，香港和澳门仍然是该平台上的热门旅游目的地。10月1日当天，香港的维多利亚港吸引了超过43万人观看烟花秀。

According to Tuniu, Thailand, the Maldives and Singapore were top choices on its platform over the holiday while the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Turkiye grew strongly as well among Chinese travelers.

据途牛的数据显示，泰国、马尔代夫和新加坡是该平台上的热门选择。前往阿联酋、塞尔维亚和土耳其中国游客数量也大幅上涨。

Xiao Peng, an analyst at Qunar, said: “The tourism industry needs time to recover after experiencing impacts from the pandemic over the past three years. But people have released their pent-up travel passion so tourism sector workers should resume services and improve them at the same time. We are happy to see that all these figures show the tourism market is getting back on track.”

去哪儿网分析师Xiao Peng表示：“旅游业需要时间从过去三年的疫情影响中恢复过来。人们已经释放了他们内心的旅行激情，所以旅游行业工作者应当恢复并改进服务。所有这些数据都显示旅游市场正在重回正轨，对此我们很高兴。”

China Railway Group

n.中国铁路集团

Bullet train

n.子弹头列车（高速列车）