At the beginning of 2023, a number of flow indicators such as civil aviation, railway, subway and express delivery have rebounded significantly, conveying the vitality of economic recovery from different perspectives. 

China Spring Festival travel rush boosts economic recovery 

The total flow of people in China came in at 4.733 billion during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush this year, according to the China's Ministry of Transport.  

A total of 1.595 billion passenger trips were made in the country via commercial transports in the period. The figure marked a 50.5-percent increase over the same period in 2022 and accounted for 53.5 percent of the volume in the corresponding period of 2019.  

Out of all modes of commercial transportation, road trips stood at 1.169 billion, marking the fastest year-on-year growth of 55.8 percent. The railway industry reported the best recovery as the number of trips touched 348 million, recovering to 85.5 percent of the 2019 level. 

Waterway and aviation trips both surged over 30 percent from a year ago to 22.452 and 55.214 million, respectively, according to China's Ministry of Transport. 

As travel demand saw a significant surge, the flow of passenger cars on expressways touched an all-time high, reaching 1.184 billion passenger cars with 3.138 billion passengers. 

Surge of the rail transit passengers 

Recently, the demand for rail transit passengers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou has continued to rebound as people return to work in all sectors and travel demand continues to increase. 

Rail transit passengers in Shanghai surpassed 10 million for the first time in 57 days on February 3, and Beijing surpassed 10 million passengers for the first time in 11 months on February 8. In Guangzhou, passenger volume has returned to its 2019 daily average of nine million on February 10. 

China's courier sector in early 2023 

More than 10 billion parcels have been collected and delivered across China in the first 39 days of this year, official data from China's State Post Bureau showed. It took 41 days to reach the same figure last year, and 79 days in 2019. 

According to the bureau, this demonstrates the vitality, resilience and growth potential of China's express delivery sector, reflecting the growing confidence of consumers, the recovery of the consumer market and the steady pace of economic recovery.

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Graphics: Travel and consumption bounces back in China

(Data edited by Sun Yiwen; graphics designed by Mukesh Mohanan)