Huanqiu Net pulled together domestic movement figures, border-crossing trends and observations from overseas outlets for the seven-day National Day holiday. Longer trips, smaller cities and experiential travel stood out, with outbound and inbound travel rising together.
In a round-up of holiday travel, Huanqiu Net drew on outlets in South Korea, Thailand, Australia and Kenya as well as the domestic market to describe both Chinese travelers going abroad and foreign visitors coming in. It portrayed the holiday as a period when tourism, shopping districts and big-ticket consumption heated up together, which it said reflects China's resilience and vitality. That is Huanqiu's framing, and the figures are relayed from the agencies and platforms that issued them.
광고 문의 · 300×250On the numbers, Huanqiu relayed that China's Ministry of Transport reported on the 7th that cross-regional movement on the 6th reached about 303.46 million person-trips. South Korea's Asia Business Daily said the seven-day holiday was expected to total 2.13 billion cross-regional trips, about 300 million a day, with border crossings projected at around 2.15 million a day.
The dominant pattern was longer trips, farther away, across several cities. Tongcheng Travel pointed to stitched-together leave driving long-haul demand, culture-and-tourism vouchers boosting spending, and overnight, autumn-foliage and county-level trips all growing, along with growth in both outbound and inbound travel.
Long hauls, small cities and hands-on travel
Qunar said bookings on routes over 2,000 km rose more than 40 percent year on year, and nearly 30 percent of travelers booked hotels in two or more cities; foliage-chasing routes were popular. Fliggy said bookings for nature and village products rose over 40 percent, with small cities such as Kashgar, Baise, Xuancheng and Wuwei leading, and new activities such as staying in old villages, learning intangible-heritage crafts, touring factory floors and playing an NPC at scenic spots appeared.
Experts looked at where the crowds went. Zhang Yiwu, a Peking University professor of Chinese, said the long break made long-distance trips possible and that visitors were flowing to counties and lower-tier markets rather than only classic hot spots. Wang Peng of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences said mass movement lifted the whole consumption chain, from top-tier shopping districts to counties, and that domestic consumption is shifting toward goods and services as twin engines.
Events and red tourism added to the mix. Shanghai hosted the world jet-ski and F1H2O powerboat championships and the Shanghai Rolex Masters, while Guangzhou staged concerts, classical music and theater that drew young visitors. Latin American agency Prensa Latina noted this year is the 90th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March victory, with the Xiangjiang Campaign memorial park in Quanzhou County, Guangxi, drawing over 9,000 visitors a day in the first two days and the Yudu memorial park in Jiangxi expecting 300,000 over seven days.
Overseas views of Chinese holidays and foreigners coming in
On the outbound side, South Korea's SBS reported a saying circulating on Chinese social media that the whole world knows Chinese people are on holiday, citing travelers at Icelandic volcano sites, Finnish aurora viewing and Indonesia's Mount Bromo. Asia Business Daily said demand for Korea keeps growing, with shopping widening from cosmetics to fashion, food, watches and jewelry, and Busan hotel bookings up nearly 120 percent against 4.2 percent in Seoul. Thailand's The Nation said Chinese arrivals in the week to October 3 topped 133,000, up nearly 42 percent on the prior week, and Australia's ABC cited IATA data showing October bookings from China to Australia up 19 percent.
On the inbound side, Kenya's The Star wrote that more international visitors are interested in nature, lifestyle and Chinese brands and design. Hong Kong's Bastille Post said many visitors skip traditional sightseeing to blend into everyday life, citing a Belgian family taking a cooking class in Yunnan. Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei was named a favorite for foreign shoppers keen to see China's tech ecosystem. Japan's Wedge website noted that the usual images of Chinese tour groups arriving at Japanese airports have largely been absent this year. Huanqiu only relayed these outside views, leaving readers to judge.
